Follow the Money

This book is the antidote to naivety that our political class needs. Anyone, in fact, who has strong views about how society should be run would benefit from reading it, because every political ambition costs money and as Johnson writes, “someone has to pay for all this”… The story he tells may leave you reeling… Johnson’s buoyant yet acerbic style will keep you engaged. The sobering realities he lays out are peppered with entertaining asides * Book of the Week, Sunday Times *So gripping and horrifying that it should probably come with a trigger warning: readers may find the content concerning the state of their country’s governance upsetting… Given its subject matter, the book is a surprisingly easy read. That’s thanks to Johnson’s clear, witty prose. Few other writers could produce such a palatable explanation of the system of local government finance or make their readers guffaw over the details of VAT collection… This is a brilliant book. Buy it, read it and weep * The Times *Erudite and informative * New Statesman *A treasure trove of killer facts * Guardian *Follow the Money is essential reading * Tortoise Media *Read it, absorb it, and understand how the country works. Johnson uses his talent for crunching the complex into the comprehensible to produce a cheerfully skeptical guide to the British state, revealing it’s wisdom and idiocy, and where our money really goes. * Laura Kuenssberg *This is an important book by the economist who has set the terms of so much political debate over the past decade. If you want to understand why crazy politics routinely trumps economic rationality in government choices, read this. * Robert Peston *Paul Johnson - the oracle of fiscal - has provided the perfect guide through this dense thicket of fiscal facts and fictions, both explaining the hard choices we now face and why, as citizens, it matters that we understand and act wisely when making them * Andy Haldane *Fire and passion, combined with the facts. Every politician should get a copy, as the tales of short-sighted, election-fixated, cowardly decision-making are so depressing. And your way forward looks so blindingly sensible. * Polly Toynbee *Readable and entertaining… Johnson pulls no punches in his new book on the public finances which charts Government public policy failures * Municipal Journal *Readers interested in this subject could hardly hope for a better-qualified author… It should be compulsory reading for every MP and prospective government minister… packed full of interesting data and analysis… The real value of this book lies in the fact that Johnson does go far beyond the usual IFS mission, setting out his own agenda for the future * Literary Review *[A] powerful dissection of the stupidities of how we organise taxing and spending – Will Hutton * Observer *Paul Johnson’s sharp and thorough Follow the Money is based on an idea so clear that it’s surprising nobody has thought of it before… an energetic and angry book, charged with a strong sense of frustration – John Lanchester * London Review of Books *

Paul Johnson has been Director of the IFS since January 2011. He is also currently visiting professor in the Department of Economics at University College London. Paul has worked and published extensively on the economics of public policy, with a particular focus on income distribution, public finances, pensions, tax, social security, education and climate change. He was awarded a CBE for services to the social sciences and economics in 2018. As well as a previous period of work at the IFS his career has included spells at HM Treasury, the Department for Education and the FSA. Between 2004 and 2007 he was deputy head of the Government Economic Service. Paul Johnson is currently also a member of the committee on climate change and the Banking Standards Board.