Sovereign Finance

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We were originally going to cover entrepreneurship, sales and marketing in this conversation. That is coming next time, but we felt compelled to comment on some goings-on. So what are those goings-on that we need to talk about? Right, well, there are five that are worthy of comment. Obviously, one is the ongoing situat...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. I’ve come across some numbers regarding the United States’ current financial position. Now, of course, the debt numbers we’re talking about run into the trillions. Bear in mind that a trillion dollars represents in round figures the lifetime earnings of a million people. I will put a link into the episode we did on big...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. Editor’s note: this episode contains two discussions covering current affairs, one from 12th December 2025, and one from 5th January 2026. (The Editor got distracted by Christmas!) We’ve published them together as one backs up the other regarding our stance on the dollar. There is an audio interlude between the two seg...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We’re going to get back to a core topic today: the nature of money. At some point in the sovereign finance journey, everyone realises that the money that you thought was real in your pocket isn’t as real as you were led to believe growing up. So what else do we have to say on this? First, at the end of the day, money i...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. The UK budget was announced on 26th November 2025, which we broadly regard as a PR exercise for the powers that ought not to be. The budget isn’t really a budget because they don’t break down where the money comes from and where it’s going. Could you elaborate on that Derek? A good starting point would be this post tha...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We’re going to talk about interest rates on bonds today. What’s going on that people need to know about here? Well, a few years ago, we did a piece on this. What I said was that the interest rates being commanded were a result of several different factors. One of them is the basic rate for basically hiring some money f...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We thought we’d do a bit of a roundup of current affairs and goings-on today. What’s going on that people should be aware of? Well, the short answer is, of course, more of the same! I was leafing through my journal over the past three or four months. I’ve been saying more or less the same things every time. We’re like...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We were talking in the conversation last time about energy and how energy is generally misunderstood or misused. We left last week’s conversation by saying that, at some point in the future, we’re going to hit limits in how we generate energy at the moment. If it’s going to be a transformation, we might need to use les...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We’re going to talk about energy today. Where do we need to start with energy? Well, on YouTube lately, I don’t know whether you’ve noticed the same thing, but I get an enormous number of ads for heaters that supposedly heat your room in seconds for next to nothing in energy costs. They work by magic. Yeah, exactly. I...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. Today, we’re going to talk about how wealth is seemingly represented by weaponry and other destructive elements of society, and relate that to some current events. So what do people need to know? “Ilth” and the Futility of War Well, it’s worth reminding ourselves of the definition we settled on: wealth is what people w...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We’re talking about inflation today. I was talking with my wife Linzi the other night about how we basically can’t go to Aldi, which is our local supermarket, and spend less than a hundred pounds, no matter how hard you try these days. She was like, well, where does this end? Because people can’t carry on doing this. I...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. So we thought we would pass comment on current events today. What’s going on that people should pay attention to? Well, probably at the top of the list would be alleged incursions by Russia into the airspace of various NATO countries. We briefly discussed this a couple of weeks ago when the drones appeared in Poland. A...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We thought we'd comment on the state of the world and some goings on today that relate to Sovereign Finance. So what's been going on that people should be paying attention to? Well, there are lots of things that don't seem to be working. Rather than addressing them, our wonderful leaders seem to be simply doubling down...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We’ve got some thoughts to share on the SCO Summit, which before this call, I was not aware of. So what is it, and what do people need to know? Well, it's the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an organisation which is oriented towards both defence and trade. It's another thing which has expanded enormously over the la...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We're talking about debt today. Last time out, we were talking about how debt can be a good thing or a bad thing at individual, business and national level. It appears in the last week or so that Britain is in a much worse state than the authorities have led us to believe. It seems we might actually be bailed out by th...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We're going to revisit a topic today that we've been talking about quite a bit recently - debt. So yeah, what's going on that people need to know about? What prompted me to think about this again was a broadcast I listened to the other day. It gave a rundown of the state of the United Kingdom's finances, which are in a...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We're discussing big numbers today, a topic we've explored before in how billions and trillions are used in public discourse. We're going to talk about that today in the context of US debt. So what do people need to know about this? Right, so I'll just give a bit of a recap. When we talked about an idea of how to get a...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We're going to talk a little bit about a book called the Mighty Micro? This is a book written in 1979. As far as I was concerned, he was preaching to the converted. I'd already been using microcomputers and indeed designing with microprocessors for two or three years at the time the book came out. But I've kept it on t...

A quick announcement: We’re holding a free live Sovereign Finance discussion on Sunday 20th July, at 7.30PM on Zoom. We’ll discuss global trends, things you might do, and answer questions from the podcast so far. Register for free here . Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. The news this week has been dominated by Trump backtracking on his commitment to b...

A quick announcement: We’re holding a free live Sovereign Finance discussion on Sunday 20th July, at 7.30PM on Zoom. We’ll discuss global trends, things you might do, and answer questions from the podcast so far. Register for free here . Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. Okay, so it’s the 10th of July. It's a full moon rising today or tomorrow. We'll r...

A quick announcement: We’re holding a free live Sovereign Finance discussion on Sunday 20th July, at 7.30PM on Zoom. We’ll discuss global trends, things you might do, and answer questions from the podcast so far. Register for free here . Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. Our topic today is the BRICS annual conference, which started a few days ago. We'v...

Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We're talking about warfare today, which is definitely a relevant topic, given worldly goings on and the connection to the financial system. So what do we need to know? We had the so-called 12 days of what you could call it, Israel and Iran, terminated by a ceasefire that Donald Trump is taking credit for. It's worth e...

Reminder: We’re holding a free live Sovereign Finance discussion on Sunday 22nd June, at 7.30PM on Zoom. We’ll discuss global trends, things you might do, and answer questions from the podcast so far. Register for free here . Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We're talking about wealth creation and wealth acquisition today. Where do we need to begin? W...

Reminder: We’re holding a free live Sovereign Finance discussion on Sunday 22nd June, at 7.30PM on Zoom. We’ll discuss global trends, things you might do, and answer questions from the podcast so far. Register for free here . Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. I’d like to discuss how interest rates would work in a sane world, and how they have in fact b...

A quick announcement: We’re holding a free live Sovereign Finance discussion on Sunday 22nd June, at 7.30PM on Zoom. We’ll discuss global trends, things you might do, and answer questions from the podcast so far. Register for free here . Rob’s comments below are in italics. Derek’s comments below are in normal font. We're going to do another weekly recap this week, which is useful for me because I...