"CBDCs are about ways of making payments; they are not a new currency."
"Whether a country needs a CBDC is really about the state of its current payments system," he pointed out in the House of Lords this month..
"What are the problems in our payments system to which a CBDC might be the answer? .... There are no problems to which a CBDC is the only, or even the most obvious, answer."
"Our payments system is more efficient than those in most other countries, certainly the United States."
"Most transactions are already digital, whether by tapping a card on a machine at the point of sale or making a digital payment on a computer for remote transactions."
"All of these are operated already by commercial banks and an increasing number of new payment vehicles."
"Competition has moved us from a system based on paper cheques to one driven largely by digital payments with virtually instantaneous clearing."
"It would be somewhat odd to try to increase competition in this area by creating a state monopoly of the payment system"
"Of course, there can always be improvements in our payment systems, but a CBDC is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for that.
"The major problem today concerns the cost and speed of cross-border payments, but much of this results from money laundering regulations."
"The enormous risk is that, in a financial crisis, households would abruptly shift their deposits from banks to [CBDC] accounts with the Bank of England, forcing the latter immediately to transfer the deposits back to the banks to avoid a collapse of the system."
"In 2008, when the Bank, with approval from the Government, lent a large amount of money to RBS and HBOS to prevent their collapse, the operations were covert and revealed only some months later to prevent a system-wide loss of confidence"
"That would be impossible if households could switch without limit instantaneously from all commercial banks to the Bank of England."
"So a retail CBDC has risks but no obvious benefits".
Lord King, from a position of immense experience, has completely demolished the case for a "Britcoin," British CBDC or "digital pound."
It thus remains quite puzzling why the Government and Bank of England are pressing ahead with such vigour? What are their real motives?
After years of saying the tax burden was too high, Labour fought the election on the basis that taxes were too high & they wouldn't put up taxes on working people, wouldn't increase income tax, NI & VAT, & had no plans to put up other taxes
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Who are 'working people'?
Keir Starmer, asked if he fell into his own description of “working man”, replied “yes, I’m a working person, I come within my own definition of a working person, which is earning my living, paying my taxes and knowing what it means to save money.”
Rachel Reeves made it clear that "working people are those people who go out and work and earn their money through hard work."
She added that "there are people who do have savings, who have been able to save up & those are working people as well."
Says Labour Shadow Minister Lisa Nandy: "At a minimum we should bring wealth taxes into line with income taxes - we go after the wealth... wealth is in assets & that's where we start"
Is Labour's bland & unrevealing manifesto a Trojan Horse, hiding all sorts of tax plans?
1/7
There's a lot of evidence of something odd going on
Earlier positions of Labour leaders point to a strong desire to hike taxes. Less than 3 years ago Starmer said "We're looking at income from property, income from dividends, shares etc. - all of those options are a wealth tax"
There's the refusal to rule out most tax increases, even trying to leave open the option of levying CGT on the family home.
Instead they reply on the transparent ruse of claiming they have "no plans" to raise taxes, which almost certainly means the opposite.
It's being floated that Labour may hike CGT but that would not be smart, not least because revenue will fall.
@Telegraph has now revealed the detailed HMRC figures analysing how much will likely be lost.
Last year @RachelReevesMP spoke out against hiking CGT, saying......
1/4
"There are people who have built up their own businesses who maybe at retirement want to sell that business.
They may not have had huge income through their life if they've reinvested in their business, but this is their retirement pot of money."
Labour has a good track record on cutting CGT.
In his first budget Gordon Brown announced: "For those who build businesses or stake their own hard-earned money in them, the long-term rate will be reduced even more from 40p to 10p in the pound - the lowest rate ever achieved."
Fascinating article in @Guardian citing many Labour voters with kids at independent schools who will now not vote Labour because of its tax on education.
People put the interests of childen first.
It's worth taking the time to read the quotes in the thread below:
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“To us, this is a tax on SEN,” said James, a 51-year-old IT manager from Hampshire, whose son is highly dyslexic but didn't qualify for additional state help.
“I have never voted for the Tories, but because of this I can’t vote for Labour," he said.
39-year-old T O’Doherty, a small-business owner from Kent, said that scrimping & saving made it just about possible to send his daughter to a small independent school.
“I have always voted Labour and I simply cannot any more,"
Labour says its new state company, Great British Energy, will result in lower bills but doesn't explain how
In fact it may result in both higher bills & higher taxes & levies
We can look at what happened in the 1990s when public sector electricity companies became private:
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Electricity prices fell considerably in real terms in the 5 years after privatization - 10% for residential customers, 11.3% for small industrial customers, 17% for medium industrial customers, 16.5% and 6.7% for moderately large & extra large industrial customers.
The profitability of the industry improved dramatically, partly due to large efficiency improvements, including reductions in staffing levels of more than 50% in the generators and over 25% in the distributors.
In other words the state companies were vastly overmanned.
Based on analysis of earlier statements by Labour politicians, advisers & think-tanks, we believe these are some of the key questions that Labour must answer.
1/5
Will you apply National Insurance (NI) to savings, investment & rental income?
Will you extend NI to people over the pensionable age?
Will you extend employer NI to employers’ contributions to pensions?
Will you increase the NI rates paid by the self-employed
Will you cut the cap on tax-free pension withdrawals?
Will you cut the allowances for contributions to pensions?
Will you make pensions subject to inheritance tax?
Will you place a cap on the amount that can be invested in a pension & seek to tax the rest?