Konstantin Bikas

The Future of Money Conference in Frankfurt

20 December, 2018
On November 24th, Positive Money had the pleasure to attend The Future of Money conference that took place at the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, initiated by Monetative, the International Movement for Money Reform, and the Blockchain Center. The main topics discussed were the current monetary system, Sovereign Money/Vollgeld, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrencies. The conference [...]

How has bank lending fared since the crisis?

5 June, 2018
Under the current monetary system, bank lending is the main way in which new money is created. Banks’ lending decisions determine which sectors money is directed to which in turn has vast implications for the shape and stability of our economy. A decade after the last crisis, caused by excessive lending to property and financial [...]

The Bank of England – Will They Or Won’t They?

4 May, 2018
Next week, policymakers at the Bank of England will publish their latest interest rate decision. Markets had previously been confident in predicting the second rate rise in six months, but a slew of bad economic data and cautious comments from Mark Carney have thrown the move into doubt. The decision will be announced on Thursday [...]

How should we respond to the next recession?

30 April, 2018
One would expect that when faced with a crisis of the magnitude experienced during and since the crash in 2008, authorities would coordinate their response. However, as Alfie Stirling points out in the latest Institute of Public Policy Research's (IPPR) Policy Paper, “policymakers in control of the UK’s two main macroeconomic policy levers have essentially [...]

Bank of England Working Paper Considers Monetary Policy’s Effect on Inequality

6 April, 2018
Ever since the Bank of England embarked on its £445 billion quantitative easing programme and cut interest rates to record-low levels, it’s faced criticism that these policies have boosted inequality. Positive Money is pleased to see that staff at the Bank have made their most comprehensive effort to date to investigate what exactly the distributional [...]

Consumer credit approaches 2008 peak

28 March, 2018
With consumer credit approaching its 2008 peak there are increasing concerns about what will happen if there's an economic downturn. According to Jonathan Davidson of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), there are a significant number of households for whom “the slightest sign of rough weather could see them in over their heads”. It’s still only [...]

The Government is running a surplus, but should we be celebrating?

12 March, 2018
Britain has eliminated the deficit on its day-to-day budget, the target originally set by George Osborne when he imposed austerity on public services in 2010. ONS figures recently released showed that for the first full year since 2001, the UK government ran a surplus on its day-to-day spending. The announcement came as a surprise to [...]

Why I care about Sovereign Money

15 February, 2018
Positive Money's new Economist, Konstantin Bikas, shares the reasons why he cares about Sovereign Money. Where does money come from? It is surprising how often people will get the answer to this question wrong. It was eye opening for me when I found out that new money is mostly created by private banks when they [...]