Diana Mousina: AMP’s 36-year-old meme-lover emerges as Australian economics’ newest star

A few years ago Diana Mousina got a big professional break. Young, fashionable and extroverted, she was hired as the deputy to one of Australia’s most experienced economists, Shane Oliver from AMP, a wealth manager.

The job was about as serious as you could get. She used mathematical models to analyse the economy for AMP’s investment managers and clients.

One day, an even-younger colleague made a suggestion: instead of writing reports that mostly only other economists understood, why not try and explain economics by using social media videos?

Ms Mousina took up the suggestion. By combining a playful approach with jargon-free explanations, she has become the newest star of Australia’s small-but-influential group of economic celebrities.

In the process, she’s modernising the image of what was one of Australia’s most conservative companies and helping many Australians, especially young women, understand economics and investing.

Inspired as much by popular culture memes as theories of demand and supply, her videos have been seen on LinkedIn about 2.5 million times and 267,000 times on TikTok - a huge number for an Australian economist. She’s put Donald Trump’s head on Taylor Swift’s body, dressed as a male burglar and boasted about economists’ pay while spraying fake money in the air.

In the most popular clip, Ms Mousina appeared, sequentially, as 19 different interest groups complaining about the housing shortage, from a renter in a baseball cap to a jacket-wearing opposition politician. Over a minute and 19 seconds, she demonstrated how conflicting interests make it the problem almost impossible to fix.

Are handbags good investments?

Given AMP was one of Australia’s earliest institutional investors, and manages $75 billion today, Ms Mousina’s weekly videos often discuss investing. A recent one responded to women claiming their high-end handbags were good investments.

Ms Mousina found a Chanel Classic Jumbo Flap cost $320 in 1995. In 2023, the handbag cost $17,417, an increase 45-times greater than inflation. A good investment? Probably not, she said, because the handbag sells for less than $9000 second-hand, and is difficult to keep in pristine condition. (She prefers a black Christian Dior wallet.)

By making economics more understandable, Ms Mousina hopes Australians will make better financial decisions. The boring and complex way it is presented is “part of the reason women aren’t as engaged in economics and finance,” she says. “That has very big implications over the long term.”

Other professional communicators have similar goals. The Sydney Morning Herald’s long-time economics commentator, Ross Gittins, specialises in analysing economics in plain language, although is sceptical of orthodox economics. The ABC’s Alan Kohler uses easy-to-understand charts to show what is happening in the economy. He too questions some of the profession’s views.

Seeking permission, sort of

Neither have become forces on social media like Ms Mousina, who produces the videos with the help of another AMP economist, My Bui, who is often her co-star. In a profession where men still wear ties, the pair convinced their boss, AMP veteran Shane Oliver, to participate in skits. He has dressed like Donald Trump and danced to YMCA.

Big companies are usually cautious about their public image. When the economist mentioned she would like to shoot videos for social media, AMP’s public relations office might not have realised the reach of Ms Mousina’s comic ambition.

“Sort of yes and sort of no,” she said on Tuesday when asked if she sought permission beforehand. “We did engage our media team. We got the tick of approval.”

Lest the board be concerned, other parts of the Sydney-based company haven’t gone wild. A month ago an interview with three AMP investment managers discussing the outlook for financial markets this year was posted on YouTube. The video of three middle-aged men sitting around a table has been watched 81 times.

As for Ms Mousina, the industry recognises she is capable of high-quality, dull analysis too. She recently joined the executive of Australian Business Economists, a group representing many influential economists, including Justin Smirk from Westpac Bank, who is a fan of her work.

“It is great to see Diana and the younger generation reach out via new platforms to show that economics is not just the domain of grumpy old men in ivory (and/or corporate) towers but something that has meaning for everyone,” he said.

On Wednesday she will speak at the National Press Club in Canberra with fellow economists Cherelle Murphy and Leonora Risse. She promises a serious speech about the economic outlook, but doesn’t rule out jokes when journalists ask questions.