PSL Quarterly Review

Central bank digital currencies: An introduction

2026-07-29T20:08:32+00:00

The proliferation of new forms of digital money, from cryptocurrencies and stablecoins to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), has called into question established categories in monetary thought and returned the old question of what money is to the centre of debate. This note introduces a special issue on CBDCs from a perspective that treats money as a social and political creation rather than a neutral technical device. Its focus is on retail CBDCs, that is, public digital money accessible to households and firms, as distinct from their wholesale counterparts. The note reconstructs some of the main theoretical issues in the debate on money and situates the discussion against the backdrop of an international monetary order that is visibly in flux, before introducing three contributions on the United States, the BRICS and Pakistan.

Move fast and break everything: Crypto and party competition in the United States

2026-07-29T20:26:35+00:00

In November, 2022, the giant cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy. The financial fallout from that event, including two bank failures, made crypto politically radioactive. Yet less than three years later, crypto, like Donald Trump himself, staged a triumphant Second Coming, as the President signed into law the so-called “GENIUS Act” – short for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins. Analysts have traced the industry’s phoenix-like resurrection, showing how key crypto billionaires and companies aligned with Trump early in the 2024 campaign, transforming him from a skeptic into a political champion. But the flip side of the story is much less discussed: how support for crypto has grown among Democrats. This paper analyzes voting by House Democrats on the GENIUS and Clarity Acts, in the context of the campaign for sweeping financial deregulation mounted by both crypto and traditional finance. The implications of a growing race to the bottom in financial regulation, cybersecurity issues, and some implications for central bank stances on crypto all receive attention.

Should BRICS members adopt a wholesale digital payment system?

2026-07-29T20:35:57+00:00

This article examines proposals to establish a BRICS central bank digital currency (CBDC) aimed at facilitating trade flows among the members, as part of their broader discussions around reforming the international monetary and financial system. It sets these proposals within the context of global CBDC efforts, South-South convergence processes, and the challenges the BRICS have faced in navigating global geo-political tensions, while aligning national CBDC efforts with groupwide initiatives. We focus on a Brazilian proposal to establish a unified BRICS cross-border payment system, seen as a first step towards a full-fledged BRICS CBDC. Our main finding is that, while this cross-border digital currency can be useful for smoothing payments and reducing the trade deficits of the smaller BRICS members, it does little to redress their asymmetric position vis-à-vis the larger country, China. The implication is that sustainable convergence among the grouping through the adoption of a unified cross-border currency would require a higher level of monetary and policy coordination than that set out in the Brazilian proposal.

Problems, pressure points and possibilities in Pakistan’s adoption of a central bank digital currency

2025-03-03T14:52:07+00:00

We argue that Pakistan is unlikely to develop sophisticated and well-reasoned plans for the adoption of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) soon. While there is interest in financial inclusion and the digitization of finance, a CBDC will not change economic fundamentals, will not receive an enthusiastic response domestically and will not aid significantly in improving financial inclusion as trust in the sovereign remains low and instability continues. There may, however, be some international pressures which may take Pakistan towards CBDC adoption. The Pakistani case will likely vindicate CBDC pessimists and proponents of the view that social problems rarely have technological solutions.

My journey to becoming an economist

2026-07-29T20:47:14+00:00

In this autobiographical essay, Sunanda Sen retraces her formation as an economist – a woman from the global South who came of age in post-independence Calcutta. From her studies at Presidency College and a doctorate at Calcutta University, through teaching at Jadavpur University and, from 1973, at the newly founded Centre for Economic Studies and Planning of Jawaharlal Nehru University, she recalls the people and institutions that shaped her work. International experiences at Yale Cambridge, Paris, and elsewhere brought her into dialogue with heterodox economists across the Keynesian and Marxist traditions. Throughout, she reflects on what it meant to pursue heterodox economics from the periphery.