Simon Youel
Why we need digital money we can trust
25 May, 2022May 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 [...]
25 years of Bank of England independence shows we need a new approach
6 May, 2022May 6, 2022 This week marks 25 years since arguably the biggest change to UK economic policy that no one voted for - the handing over of control of monetary policy and inflation to the Bank of England, a newly ‘independent’ central bank. Established in 1694 and nationalised in 1945, the Bank of England has [...]
CBDC: A solution in search of a fair hearing?
14 January, 2022January 14, 2022 A new report from the House of Lords on central bank digital currency (CBDC) shows that politicians still don’t understand the problems with our monetary system. On Thursday the House of Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee published the report from their inquiry into central bank digital currencies (CBDC), titled ‘Central bank digital currencies: [...]
Are price controls the solution to inflation woes?
17 December, 2021December 17, 2021 Increasing the price of money through higher interest rates would be a crude and potentially damaging way of dealing with inflation, especially when it is being driven by huge rises in a few specific goods. So why not control the prices of such goods directly? With consumer price index (CPI) inflation rising [...]
Who is shaping the future of our money and payments system?
22 November, 2021November 22, 2021 The Bank of England has said it will engage with a “diverse cross-section of expertise and perspectives” on a central bank digital currency - so why is it mainly listening to big finance and tech giants? We at Positive Money were hopeful when the Bank of England announced a new ‘Engagement Forum’ [...]
Is the Bank of England using the wrong tools?
4 November, 2021November 4, 2021 Central banks like to maintain that interest rates are the main way they can influence the economy. But behind this there are more powerful tools to control the creation of credit. We look at how these tools have been used through history, and explore whether they could help with the current inflation [...]
Why ‘Britcoin’ shouldn’t mean the end of cash
28 July, 2021July 28, 2021 The government and the Bank of England are working together on developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the UK. There are concerns that this new ‘Britcoin’ would replace cash, but the real war on cash is being waged by big banks and card companies. Over the weekend the Daily Mail [...]
Could a digital pound mean the end of banking as we know it?
12 July, 2021Mon 12th July 2021 With everything which has been going on in the world recently, from a terrifying heat dome emerging in North America to England making it to their first Euros final, it can be forgiven that speeches from key economic figures exploring the potential end of the monetary system as we currently know [...]
The big flaw with the Bank of England’s approach to going green
25 June, 2021June 25, 2021 After years of justifying its support for some of the world’s most environmentally destructive companies under the principles of ‘market neutrality’, it’s great that the Bank of England is now taking action to ‘green’ its corporate bond purchase scheme (CBPS). But currently, our central bank’s approach is unlikely to be enough to [...]