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 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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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:
Ireland’s takings have increased by 386% between 2009 and 2021; that implies at least a doubling of the […]
Brexit-Watch article where this piece was originally published
Published on 7 March 2022
The UK’s financial sanctions over the Ukraine invasion fall well short of cutting Russia off SWIFT, maxing out on the usual self-congratulatory hyperbole whilst opening up significant risk. When we should be distinguishing our PR approach from that of the Kremlin, we instead get […]