GPI Associate Director and Senior Fellow, Dr Michael Lloyd, will speak at an upcoming Z/Yen webinar on “Global Financial Challenges – The Role Of Central Bank Digital Currencies“, which will be live streamed on the 15th of March 2023 from 11:00 to 11:45 GMT. This is a free event and you can register for the...Read More

In September 2022 a new Conservative government led by Liz Truss embarked on a new path for economic policy, ostensibly challenging “Treasury orthodoxy”, leaving aside the fact that they never defined what Treasury orthodoxy was. The initiative did not start well! Chancellor Kwarteng’s statement in the UK parliament on Friday, September 23rd led to a...Read More

This article was originally published by Z/Yen. There is much discussion about trust in money these days, especially, towards the end of 2022, in relation to crypto-currencies and to some stablecoins. Indeed, money, though intangible, is all about trust. This is true whether we are discussing private money or public money. However, beyond trust per se, the...Read More

The article (link) examines the rationale behind the exploration by the vast majority of the world’s central banks of introducing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The phenomenon is discussed in the context of a number of key issues: a) the main drivers of central bank interest, b) the crucial role of public money in supporting...Read More

Two well-respected analysts and commentators, John Mearsheimer (2022) and Wolfgang Streeck (2022a and b), have recently put forward a persuasive thesis that historical and contemporary fault-lines are placing the EU in a position where its political and economic independence may be terminally challenged (see especially Streeck (2022b) in an Unheard interview. In summary, the thesis...Read More

Despite the apparent acceptance at international level of several linked, though in some cases contradictory, norms, namely the (civic) nation-state sovereignty, the territorial integrity of nations-states, unitary and federal governance structures, and the right of self-determination, these norms are frequently challenged. The artificiality of such norms – confirmed only by the flimsy apparatus of international...Read More

In 1978, Vaclac Havel wrote an essay, “The Power of the Powerless”. It followed the publication of “Charter 77” in 1977. In the essay Havel attempted to explain his view of what it meant to be a dissident in Czechoslovakia at that time, but the essay also described the nature of the all-pervasive ideology prevalent...Read More

There seems little doubt either that a new Cold War is appearing in the world, or of its ideological content. This is not to dismiss economic competition and security issues, but there needs to be a recognition of the ideological content of the contemporary antagonisms. The difference with the new Cold War is that the...Read More

There are two ways of looking at the “Aukus” initiative, recently launched by the US, Australia, and the UK. First, it may be seen, as it was described by Ben Wallace the UK Defence Secretary: as an important defence procurement trade deal between the US and Australia, involving the construction and delivery of nuclear-powered submarines...Read More

We should perhaps be comfited, at least partly, by the fact that the shift in some other European countries towards mandatory vaccination has not yet surfaced strongly in the UK. However, for some time now I have been concerned about the often inadequate, misleading, and often conflicting information presented to the British public over the...Read More