Kevin Dowd's Totalitarian Money? provides a comprehensive critique of proposals to establish CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) around the world. He argues that they are economically inefficient, as they provide no benefits that cannot be obtained by other means. He explains why CBDCs are dangerous to financial stability and personal freedom as they enable digital currency to be weaponised against people to comply with the political or social agendas of those in control. Dowd reveals that, despite being promoted by central banks as the next 'big thing', public demand for CBDCs is negligible and they have been rejected by the public wherever they have been introduced. Evaluating the track record of countries that have introduced CBDCs, Dowd explores the drawbacks of CBDCs and explains why the private sector is better equipped to provide a retail digital currency to the general public.
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Argues that CBDCs are economically inefficient and provide no benefits that cannot be obtained by other means.
1. The Case against Central Bank Digital Currencies;
2. Background and
History of Central Bank Digital Currencies;
3. CBDC Fundamentals;
4. Private
Digital Currencies;
5. CBDC Controversies in Different Countries;
6. CBDC
Experiences to Date;
7. CBDCs and Macroeconomic Policy;
8. A CBDC Could
Disintermediate the Banking System;
9. CBDCs and Financial Inclusion;
10. On
the Importance of Financial Privacy;
11. CBDCs as Weaponised Currency;
12. A
Reform Agenda for Efficient Payments Media.
Kevin Dowd is professor of finance and economics at Durham University Business School. He is a prominent critic of central banking whose previous books include Competition and Finance (1998), Alchemists of Loss (with Martin Hutchinson, 2010) and The Experience of Free Banking (2nd edition, 2023).
