In the 1930s one was aware of two great evils - mass unemployment and the threat of war.

He was educated at Malvern College and attended Oriel College Oxford in 1926 to read Greats but switched to Philosophy Politics and Economics and gained an outstanding first. For example he showed that the labour-managed firm (or worker cooperatives) need not respond inefficiently to price rises even in theory. Meade along with young enthusiasts such as Roy Harrod Henry Phelps Brown Charlie Hitch Robert Hall Lindley Fraser Maurice Allen and Eric Hargreaves who was his old tutor at Oriel College started the concept of teaching economics as a regular subject for examination which was relatively new at Oxford.

After working in the League of Nations and the Cabinet Office he was the leading economist of the early years of Attlee's government before taking professorships at LSE (1947–57) and Cambridge (1957–67). He was educated at Malvern College and attended Oriel College Oxford in 1926 to read Greats but switched to Philosophy Politics and Economics and gained an outstanding first. His interest in economics grew from an influential postgraduate year at Trinity College Cambridge (1930–31) where he held frequent discussions with leading economists of the time including Dennis Robertson and John Maynard Keynes.