"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?
Inventor Sir James Dyson has accused Rachel Reeves of “vindictiveness” saying that her death tax raid on family businesses will “destroy” them & that, rather than raise revenue, it will cost the exchequer billions in other taxes.
He is entirely correct.
1/6
Dyson said that 60 of the top 100 UK taxpayers were owners of family businesses and together pay £3 billion a year in taxes. “Such companies employ 14 million people & contribute many more billions — year in, year out — funding vital public services,” he said.
“This is what Rachel Reeves will kill off with her budget, which introduces a confiscation of 20% of all family companies at every generation, based not on assets (as with farming) but on a much higher figure, a theoretical multiple of future profits".
Rachel Reeves is a one woman walking political disaster area for the Labour Party.
The vast majority of Labour’s political screw-ups since the election have been caused by Rachel.
Will they allow her to carry on doing this?
1/9
The family farm tax row, which will both dominate the news for months and threaten Labour’s 100 rural seats was a totally unnecessary blunder.
Infuriating farmers for a measly £560m, enough to keep the NHS running for 25 hours, was a major mis-step.
Reeves adopted a badly researched policy pushed by far left academics and failed to consult the line Ministry, DEFRA, who weren’t even told about her tax grab until the night before the budget.
The Labour Party appears to have adopted the "big lie" approach to communicating its tax and economic policy.
Labour's latest brazen lie is that they didn't hike NI when in fact it was the biggest tax increase in the budget.
This thread examines the big lie technique
1/9
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984
George Orwell developed the concept of big lie propaganda in his book 1984, describing techniques used by the Nazi and Soviet regimes
Goebbels insisted "all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these slogans until the last member of the public understands."
Incentives to invest in start-ups were shredded in Labour's budget
Labour can't claim that the tax hikes are needed to 'save the NHS' as HMRC's own analysis shows the "exchequer impact" is negligible
The policy seems based on ideological hatred of private investors
1/15
Investors' relief (IR) from Capital Gains Tax (CGT) was slashed, both by an 80% increase in the tax rate from 10% to 18% & a 90% cut in the lifetime limit on gains from £10m to a measly £1m.
IR's purpose was to increase investment into small companies through a lower CGT rate.
Start-ups are the future of our economy. Without the growth of innovative, job-creating new firms Britain's future is bleak.
But Labour has just said "sod you" to those who risk their money to enable these fims to succeed.
So much for Labour's commitment to economic growth.
Labour lied about applying the death tax to family farms.
Shadow environment secretary Steve Reed when asked whether Labour intended to get rid of Agricultural Property Relief (APR) from inheritance tax replied, “we don’t”, adding, “we have no intention of changing APR”.
1/5
And of couse Keir Starner gave farmers the false impression that he wouldn't betray them, telling the NFU in Feb, "Every day seems to bring a new existential threat to British farming. You deserve better."
Farmer's leaders called the tax attack ‘nothing short of a betrayal'.
“You deserve a government that listens, that heeds early warnings, that shows the level of ambition needed to tackle the challenges that you face," Starmer told farmers.
He promised "a relationship based on respect, on genuine partnership."