In the UK the payments industry is absolutely dominated by about half a dozen banks. You can't offer a debit card, or sort/account codes cheaply and with a dire

In the UK the payments industry is absolutely dominated by about half a dozen banks. You can't offer a debit card, or sort/account codes cheaply and with a direct, low volume interface into payments. This means there is less competition and choice. The Bank of England is consulting on a CBDC and people from small, nimble providers who can change their tech more cheaply than big incumbents are representing the view that a CBDC can open up the payments infrastructure for them. It is hard to imagine a better development for them, and consumers. Less positively, the whole critique of Keynesianism was answered decades ago and it amazes me that this is still a debate. Facts are facts, people have lives and need to consume, optimising without regard to this is abstracting human consequences out of the equation and therefore morally abhorrent. The Austrian school is for people who don't need to live with the agony of unemployment or deprivation.