About Bob

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So far Bob has created 261 blog entries.

How Germany can get railroaded within the European Central Bank’s Governing Council

Published on 5 August 2022

Germany has been resistant to many measures of the European Central Bank, not least the size of its bond-buying programmes and its latest ‘Transmission Protection Mechanism’ approved at the main meeting of July 2022. The aim of the ‘TPM’ is to avoid ‘fragmentation’, meaning the yields on the bonds issued by […]

Risks in contemplating transition from ERM II into the euro

Published on 4 August 2022

Two countries are currently in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II – Bulgaria and Croatia. ERM II is the Euro waiting room. Croatia has now passed the tests to get on the plane – but should it pause and apply some tests to the Euro itself?

We recently ran some tests on […]

Published – our letter to the Daily Telegraph

Published on 10 July 2022

I had the top ‘Reader’s Letter’ published by the Daily Telegraph on 9 June 2022, occasioned by an email to all Tory party members by the Supreme Leader, telling us all the things that weren’t in the 2019 Manifesto that were now going to happen, and avoiding mention of everything in […]

Promised legal protection for cash is a further nail in its coffin

Published on 23 May.

Based on an article first published on News Uncut on 21 May 2022.

The Queen’s Speech, delivered on 10 May 2022, promises legal protection for access to physical cash. The protection is to be afforded in a new Financial Services and Markets Bill (the ‘Bill’). One might be forgiven for believing that this […]

The ECB confirms the status of the Eurosystem: a parasite serving only the needs of the Eurozone public sector

Balances of banks sitting in the Eurosystem and percentage of respective country’s GDP

Published on 10 May 2022.

Previously published by irefeurope.org but with more detail behind the numbers.

The European Central Bank (ECB) held its latest Governing Council meeting on 14 April 2022 and issued its normal press release. It issued its longer ‘Combined monetary policy decisions […]

The European Stability Mechanism is a dead letter with inadequate firepower

The subscribed and paid capital contributions of the 19 ESM members

Published on 7 April 2022.

The underlying article was published for the first time on www.brexit-watch.org on 6 April 2022.

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is the main Eurozone bailout fund should further members be unable to access capital markets directly: the ESM would finance the member […]

Mr Sunak’s ‘Spring Statement’ – a man without a fallback

Government announcement of the Spring Statement CASHBACK

Published on 24 March 2022

Mr Sunak’s Spring Statement was far less impressive than his rhetoric has made it appear. Once again a senior member of this administration reaches a Gold Standard in rhetoric, but at best a Bronze one in achievement. The claim does not stand up to examination […]

Payment technocrats have crippled EU’s ability to impose biting sanctions on Russia

Original IREF article of 16 March 2022 accessed on 21 March 2022

Published on 23 March 2022

The EU recently announced partial financial sanctions on Russia, designed to keep payments for energy moving. The EU accepted the contention – disproved below – that a bank either gets cut off from SWIFT, the global financial telecommunications network, completely […]

Rishi Sunak’s minimum 15% global corporation tax rate may have failed, but the Kremlin has stuck the boot in (inadvertently)

Original Brexit-Watch.org article

Published on 18 March 2022

Our Brexit-Watch.org article last week showed how tax-leveraged leasing through Ireland was a major contributor to the BigTech and Biotech companies minimizing their corporation tax payments:https://www.brexit-watch.org/irelands-fear-of-depending-on-foreign-companies-tax-receipts-is-unfounded-for-the-wrong-reasonsWhilst Rishi Sunak’s much-trumpeted minimum 15% global corporation tax rate won’t have any effect at all, the Kremlin has intervened by passing a law […]

National Insurance rise is the working people’s punishment for the failure of Rishi Sunak’s minimum 15% global corporation tax rate

Brexit-Watch.org article of 14 March 2022

Published on 16 March 2022

Ireland’s corporation tax receipts continue to rise, thanks to their ‘Celtic Tiger’ business model:

https://www.brexit-watch.org/irelands-fear-of-depending-on-foreign-companies-tax-receipts-is-unfounded-for-the-wrong-reasons

This was already costing the UK £10 billion a year in lost corporation tax in 2016:

The UK’s lost GDP and tax revenues

Ireland’s takings have increased by 386% between 2009 and 2021; that implies at least a doubling of the […]