iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Simon Youel

Positive Money UK @positivemoneyuk.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Our Head of Policy & Advocacy @simonyovel.bsky.social sets a few things straight about our proposal to #TaxTheBanks in @thebanker.bsky.social 👇 🧵[1/5] Our windfall tax is specifically designed to avoid harming the UK’s competitiveness as a global financial hub. Based on...

thebanker.com

Letter to the editor: Citi’s Fraser wrong that a bank tax would harm the UK

A windfall levy on UK banks now would mirror Margaret Thatcher’s policy in the 1980s

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Reposted by Simon Youel

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

One of Truss's worst legacies is to give the lobby an obsession with small moves in gilt prices.

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I think politicians probably need to be more honest that, with an ageing population and all the demands on government spending in a world where there's not a magic growth tree, public debt/gdp is only going to grow, and a return to the financial repression of the post-war years looks inevitable

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I've wondered to what extent this vibe is shaped by politicians telling the public how difficult things are (invariably due to their predecessor). If you are told we can't afford anything because Liz Truss Crashed The Economy you might reasonably assume this means you must be worse off

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

In return they should at least publish a piece from Dante Disparte's arch nemesis @rohangrey.bsky.social People would probably pay good money for a round 2 of their clash at Consensus 2022 fortune.com/2022/06/09/d... Perhaps one for @alphaville.ft.com ?

fortune.com

DeFi panel erupts over CBDCs as Circle's Disparte calls them 'proposterous' and a law professor curses the Fed | Fortune

The panel discussed whether the Federal Reserve should issue a digital dollar.

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Disappointing to see @financialtimes.com publish this PR from the stablecoin industry as an opinion piece rather than sponsored content - they could have at least got some money from it! www.ft.com/content/69cd...

ft.com

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Reposted by Simon Youel

Positive Money UK @positivemoneyuk.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

🚀 NEW report launch 💷 'Taking all the credit' explores how we can safeguard monetary & financial stability against the challenges of the 21st century *and* boost investment in the real economy. [1/7] 🏦 In the UK…

positivemoney.org

Taking all the credit: Future-proofing money and credit policy for the 21st century

Positive Money report explores how we can safeguard monetary & financial stability while facilitating productive investment in the real economy

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Reposted by Simon Youel

Isabella M. Weber @isabellamweber.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

The world energy shock is coming — it will deepen inequality in ways we've seen before. Our new @newstatesman1913.bsky.social piece argues that without urgent government action, the Strait of Hormuz crisis will ripple through our economies and rip apart our societies. Here's why. 1/

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Bit of a brass neck on Reeves here in her Mais lecture. Don't recall her or Labour shouting about the priceless opportunity to invest in the early 2010s - quite the opposite

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Reposted by Simon Youel

Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

in which, I argue that the digital euro should be seen as primarily an expression of institutional mojo, which is why people don't understand it backofmind.substack.com/p/why-this-w...

backofmind.substack.com

why this, why now, why not?

the digital euro and theories of action

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Positive Money UK @positivemoneyuk.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

"It is very worrying that banks feel able to use their influence to try and dictate elected government policy." Peter Mandelson was not an outlier - Government ministers continue to put the interests of banks above ours. Our Head of Policy and Advocacy, Simon Youel, on Sky News today 👇

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Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

I explained here why Stogia is wrong: there's no magic money tree which means finance is more available to the private than public sector, & the constraint on investing is real resources, not the public finances: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/no-magic-m...

chrisdillow.substack.com

No magic money trees

"There's no magic money tree" is an argument against privatization.

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Good that Alistair Darling didn't fall for this, but sad that Rachel Reeves did

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Reposted by Simon Youel

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

In any other context, requiring a high-productivity sector to offshore the production of its highest value-added exports would be seen as the economic illiteracy it so obviously is... www.ft.com/content/a23c...

ft.com

UK drops target for international student recruitment

Government to encourage education providers to open campuses overseas as it focuses on reducing migration

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

I regret to inform that I have started a blog open.substack.com/pub/simonyov...

open.substack.com

Why?

Introducing this thing.

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

This is absent. Despite all the talk of the return of industrial policy, we have a bunch of mealy mouthed missions with toothless policy supoort. No clear direction and institutional capacity being massively underutilised. It is a government bathing in the tepid bath of managed decline, to quote KS

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

As well as the question of what taxes and what spending, there is also the matter of broader strategy. You would expect a robust left economic programme to use all of the levers of state, inc fiscal, industrial and credit policy, plus public financial institutions, to support clear missions

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Perhaps it is also that the scope of left-wing economics isn't confined to simply higher taxes and higher spending

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

What do you mean by this? If the government introduces a contractionary budget why would we not expect unemployment to continue to rise?

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

I think the problem is the government didn't even need to be good in opposition - indeed some of their problems now stem from choices made prior to governing, e.g certain manifesto pledges

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Even that seems to be wishful thinking. What makes people so sure that if they raise income tax at a level aimed at filling the Black Hole that lower growth, lower tax revenue, higher unemployment and higher welfare spending won't result in the Black Hole growing again?

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Running a surplus when unemployment is already at 5%? Eh?

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

I would assume the FT knows this, but ROTE is the preferred measure for banking profitability, for good reason. That is of course less convenient for the author's intent to paint those questioning whether banks can afford to shoulder a higher burden as naive socialists, though.

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Reposted by Simon Youel

Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

If this is the case, then publishing this piece is a poor editorial decision to say the least. We should, at a minimum, expect stated financial statistics to be broadly accurate in the Financial Times.

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Anyway, I am still none the wiser to what the last sentence of that paragraph is supposed to mean. There are already 70 stations in zone 5 so therefore increasing network capacity and decreasing travel times to Birmingham is a waste of time?

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

I assumed it was common knowledge that the real benefit of HS2 was increasing capacity across the network, not just making it quicker to get from B'ham to London. I also hoped it was common knowledge since Keynes/Robinson that investment creates savings and thus isn't crowded out by the deficit

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Come on Chris, you can do better than this!

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

False hope about what? That things could possibly get better? Labour telling on themselves here

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Reposted by Simon Youel

Carsten Jung @carsjung.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

NEW: UK taxpayers are losing £22 billion every year from losses at the Bank of England - the same as the entire Home Office annual budget. This is the result of a flawed implementation of the BoE's quantitative easing programme. We propose two steps to fix this leak. (1/4)

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Positive Money UK @positivemoneyuk.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

“High interest rates are a form of economic rent and should be kept as low as possible." Our @youellog.bsky.social pushes back on the misguided suggestion that the Bank of England should be setting interest rates well above inflation in @thetimes.com via ‪@georgenixon97.bsky.social bit.ly/3IITWen

thetimes.com

Poor savings rates and inflation wipe 11p off every £1

There are calls for the Bank of England to act to protect our cash from the damaging effects of high inflation

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

I thought this was about life insurance

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Reposted by Simon Youel

Josh Ryan-Collins @jryancollins.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

In 2020, Brazil launched Pix, a public digital payment system during Covid. It is now dominant, undercutting credit & debit card providers, reducing transaction costs, enhancing productivity & increasing financial competition. Don't tell me the state can't innovate. www.economist.com/the-americas...

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Excited to have joined the University of Manchester's Law and Technology Initiative as a Visiting Research Fellow Looking forward to building the future of public money with @johnhaskell.bsky.social and the talented fellows I am lucky to be working with www.law-tech.manchester.ac.uk/research/vis...

law-tech.manchester.ac.uk

Visiting Research Fellows | Manchester Law and Technology Initiative | The University of Manchester

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Sad I am only just finding out about your exquisite music taste now

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Either way banks could more reasonably use cash isa funding to increase loans to business, if increasing investment and growth is the goal here. The government seems to be signalling they don't trust banks to intermediate an optimal allocation of capital

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Yes basel would make increasing allocation towards equities more expensive for banks for good reason. The government seems to want to pass risks onto consumers

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

what is stopping banks using cash isa funding to increase their allocation towards stocks if it's such a good idea for ordinary savers?

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

The government instead wants savers to prop-up a record high stock market. Presumably banks could use cash Isa funding to buy more stocks - is it that they don't want to take those risks themselves, and would prefer savers hold the bag?

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Struggle to follow this reasoning from the government - do they think cash Isas literally function like cash under the bed? What is stopping banks using Isa funding to invest? Is the government saying they don't trust banks to optimally allocate capital? www.theguardian.com/money/2025/f...

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Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

What could possibly go wrong. t.co/se9BwENDAr

Rachel Reeves' quest to kickstart growth in Britain's economy will see her holding talks with leading investment bankers and asset managers this week, the latest in a series of summits with senior financiers.

Sky News has learnt that the chancellor has called in executives from companies including Abrdn, BlackRock, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Schroders on Wednesday morning.

Sources said the meeting was intended to feed ideas into the forthcoming Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy.

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Maybe this new 'Office for Value for Money' could look into this arrangement? Or will the government continue to focus on trying to squeeze piecemeal sums out of victimising people on benefits, while quietly handing much larger amounts to bankers? www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/dwp-pla...

disabilityrightsuk.org

DWP Plans for Bank Account Surveillance Likely to Breach Privacy Law

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Assuming they stick to their fiscal rules (for better or worse), if the government just did something about this they could quite easily rebuild public services without needing to raise people's taxes. Perhaps they could even win the next election?

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

These transfers to the Bank of England appear to outweigh the savings the government hopes to make from cuts to departmental spending, and could perhaps even cover Labour's previous public investment target of £28bn a year

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not sure I will ever get over how the government talks so much about the need to reduce 'wasteful' public spending while effectively funneling tens of billions of pounds a year to the banking sector www.bankofengland.co.uk/asset-purcha...

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Didn't manage to get a screenshot, but the 'correct' answer to the question of what the BoE does was something about setting interest rates to manage savings which is...interesting

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Simon Youel @simonyovel.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

At first I wondered what the Bank of England is trying to achieve here...but then I realised that this is their strategy for dealing with inflation - guilting people into cutting back on spending Like the squanderbug for today's boring dystopia www.ladbible.com/news/bank-of...

ladbible.com

Take the BoE quiz now for a chance of winning £1,000

To be in with the chance of winning up to £1,000, take the Bank of England quiz to test your money IQ here.

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