Hello from the Peak District
I hope you remain safe and well wherever you are in the world. Although here in the UK there is some relaxations in the government’s lockdown arrangements we are still, I think, many months away from normal.
What did I do in May?
I did some consulting work for a police force and spent quite a bit of time preparing the statement of accounts for Friends of Ibba Girls School for review by the independent examiner (which is a simplified form of audit for small charities). The rest of my working time was devoted to recording and editing screencasts for the certificate course I have mentioned in previous newsletters. I am now over three-quarters done and hope to have published it by the end of June
Public financial management in the news
A number of public finance related stories caught my eye in the news during May. I’ve mentioned previously that governments who create their own money do not have too much to worry about in terms of their borrowing to pay for their Cover-19 response. Here is a video explaining the basics of modern money. It includes this important idea:
Currency issuers are unique, they should not behave like currency users. If you can grasp that, you are already further along than most of our politicians.
At risk to my own course, the International Monetary Fund has re-launched its public financial management online course. It’s free and apparently almost 5,000 people have completed it previously. You can read about it and find registrations links here.
Inevitably there has to be a Cover-19 related story. Many governments are having to implement economic packages to support some of their businesses and industries. Whilst this makes sense there are voices who believe that such support should only be provided to companies who have behaved as good citizens in terms of their tax affairs. Why should a company, the thinking goes, receive money from a government it has deliberately avoided paying taxes to. Scotland is one country that has implemented a policy of not providing aid to tax avoiding businesses. And here is an article identifying other European countries taking similar measures. Finally, an antidote perhaps to the previous story. Here is an essay arguing that instead of shaming the wealthy people and businesses who avoid taxes there should be moral pressure placed on them by making clear just how much tax other people and businesses do pay. I think it is well worth 10 minutes of your time to read it.
Keep in touch
You can keep in touch with me in many ways. First, of course, you can reply to this email. You can also follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on LinkedIn and FaceBook.
If you think this newsletter would be useful to a friend or colleague send them this link — https://managingpublicmoney.co.uk/signup — so they can sign up.
That’s it for this month.
Best wishes, Gary.
Keep in touch
You can keep in touch with me in many ways. First, of course, you can reply to this email. You can also follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on LinkedIn and FaceBook.
If you think this newsletter would be useful to a friend or colleague send them this link — https://managingpublicmoney.co.uk/signup — so they can sign up.
That’s it for this month.
Best wishes, Gary.
