Simon Youel

How much could a windfall tax on banks raise?

10 August, 2023
August 10, 2023  Momentum is growing for a windfall tax on banks in the UK, with Italy this week following Spain in adopting one. But there is uncertainty about how such a tax would work and how much it could raise. We explore a few potential options. Since last year, we have been advocating for [...]

Leading thinkers call for more inclusive public conversation on the future of money

3 July, 2023
30 June 2023 34 leading thinkers from civil society and academia have signed a joint statement organised by Positive Money in response to the government’s digital pound consultation, calling for a “genuinely inclusive national conversation on the future of money.” Noting that “a public digital pound could represent the most profound shift in the monetary [...]

An opportunity to stop the privatisation of money with a digital pound

24 May, 2023
The government’s consultation on a digital pound is ultimately a debate over whether the public should have access to publicly issued money, or whether we should only use privately issued money. Positive Money believes money is a public good, and we will be supporting the introduction of digital cash alongside physical cash in order to [...]

Fresh crises reinforce the need for a public banking system

23 March, 2023
March 23, 2023 The current banking crisis puts the nature of the banking system into sharp relief, and forces us to ask what banking is for and how it can best serve society. It reveals how our money and payments infrastructure are public goods, and should be treated as such through a public banking system. [...]

March 2023 interest rate hike: Positive Money response

23 March, 2023
Responding to the Bank of England’s decision to raise interest rates by a further 0.25% to 4.25%, Fran Boait, executive director of research and campaign group Positive Money said: “With the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and rescue of Credit Suisse we are beginning to truly see the impact of central banks’ interest rate [...]

Why are we paying tens of billions to banks during a cost of living crisis?

9 November, 2022
While the Chancellor plans spending cuts to fill a self-imposed £50 billion ‘black hole’, the government is set to pay around £80 billion to banks over the next two years for nothing. This highlights the urgent need for a rethink of monetary policy. With the self-imposed constraint of a £50 billion ‘black hole’ in the [...]

To tackle the cost of living we need to align banks with public purpose

9 August, 2022
August 9, 2022 As recent research from the New Economics Foundation has highlighted, we are relying on huge subsidies to influence the behaviour of banks. But what if we could replace the carrot with a stick? We can not only look to the past for inspiration on how to do this, but to the digital [...]

Why politicians are wrong to blame the ‘money supply’ for inflation

19 July, 2022
July 19, 2022 Joining ‘tax cuts for growth’, the latest dodgy economics trend in the Conservative leadership contest is an obsession with the money supply. This might sound like an intuitive response to inflation, but it misdiagnoses the problem and risks making things even worse. While he was in the running for leadership, Tom Tugenhadt [...]

Why we need digital money we can trust

25 May, 2022
May 25, 2022 In order for digital money to serve the public good, the public need to trust it. UK policymakers should look to the US’ ECASH Act for inspiration. The spectacular collapse of Luna, a so-called ‘stablecoin’, alongside the wider fallout in crypto markets in recent weeks is another wake-up call for the need [...]