First published on brexit-watch.org
Doubts have recently been raised about the financial competence of those who manage the national finances on behalf of all of us. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has – belatedly some would say – come under fire for the losses to fraud through his Bounce Back Loans scheme: the losses have been estimated […]
Most of my contribution appeared on Facts4EU.org
On the second anniversary of the UK’s leaving the EU, it was worth relecting on what had been gained, even if Theresa May and now Boris Johnson could claim very little credit for it.
Here were my First Eleven of benefits, which made up the bulk of the Facts4EU piece…
Had […]
First published on en.irefeurope.org
In recent times, the EU authority has been challenged by Romania and Poland, both of whom have asserted the primacy of their domestic laws over EU treaty law in certain areas. Hungary is also a well-known thorn in its side. Given these threats, and the reputational sleight of the departure of the […]
This article was first published on brexit-watch.org
Facts4EU.Org has revealed that the EU, in Christmas week, floated the concept of new taxes to bring in an amount of €380 billion between 2026 and 2030, of which €85 billion would flow to Brussels. €247 billion of the new taxes are carbon-related, and €133 billion are new taxes […]
We have responded to the Payment Systems Regulator’s latest consultation on APP scams.
Their proposals continue the same, failed direction-of-travel as hitherto.
This problem could be solved, and completely, by legal changes that row back on EU payments legislation in the form of the 2017 Payment Services Regulations (based on the EU Payment Services Directive) and the […]
TARGET2: scale of invisible Eurozone liabilities demands action by global financial regulators
We recently had a blog published by Politeia about the lack of transparency in the accounting for the debts of EU/Eurozone member states. The member states’ contingent liability to backstop the debts of the EU is an example. Member states also have a contingent […]
The Eurosystem’s balance sheet now shows that its assets of €12 trillion exceed the Eurozone’s 2020 GDP of €11.4 trillion. This is attributable to the emergency response to Covid by the European Central Bank (ECB), who both created the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (the PEPP), extended the programme of unsecured loans to banks called Targeted […]
You can DOWNLOAD HERE the technical blog that accompanies the Politeia article on extrapolating lessons for the Eurozone, UK and global banking systems from the proposed merger of UniCredit and Monta dei Paschi di Siena.
The case raises difficult questions about whether any meaningful re-capitalization of banking systems has occurred since the Global Financial Crisis or […]
As Italy’s oldest bank is poised to merge with its second largest, Bob Lyddon considers the failure of Eurozone governance and its potential consequences – from which the UK is not immune
The UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement (2019) with its Northern Ireland Protocol remains one problematic matter of unfinished Brexit business. Less widely known is the matter […]
This article as it appeared on CommentCentral on 4 August 2021
A certain David Pitt, fresh from his triumphs as Chief
Operating Officer of Test and Trace, has been appointed as Chief Executive
Officer of Pay.UK, the company responsible for the UK’s main payment systems.
This is not a joke, although the timing is unfortunate, coinciding
with the unfolding pingdemic […]