Junior doctors ‘not exceptional’ when it comes to impact of inflation, says minister

Published

2 years ago

July 14, 2023

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Junior doctors are “not exceptional in having inflation pressures” on their wages and should take the government’s proposed pay rise “seriously”, a minister has said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed on Thursday that he would be accepting recommendations from public sector pay review bodies to increase wages across the board – albeit without giving departments extra funding to pay for it.

As a result, an offer of a 6% rise, plus a one-off payment of £1,250, was made to junior doctors.

Politics live: Junior doctors’ strike continues for second day

But the British Medical Association (BMA) – whose members are currently on strike and are calling for a full 35% pay restoration to bring salaries back to 2008 levels – said the new figure “serves only to increase the losses faced by doctors after more than a decade’s worth of sub-inflation pay awards”.

Asked by Sky News about the BMA’s reaction, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said junior doctors were “not unusual” in the pressures they were facing as “every single person actually across the world, not even just across this country, has seen the impacts of inflation”.

She added: “So [junior doctors] are not exceptional in having, you know, inflation pressures. We all have inflationary pressures. Everybody does.”

Ms Keegan said it was a “tricky balancing act” to make pay offers without fuelling further increases in inflation, and the government was “trying to be fair”.

She said: “The independent pay review bodies have done a very thorough analysis, and they look at rates of recruitment, retention, they look at all the other sort of professions or similar professions, so they do do a very thorough job.

“And so, you know, I think it’s only fair that [junior doctors] should look at that and take that seriously.”

Sunak’s commitment to pay rises leaves long-term funding question

Rob Powell

Political correspondent

@robpowellnews

For the education secretary, this morning was a victory lap. Her team are cock-a-hoop with the resolution to teacher’s pay.

In the Department for Education, the extra money will be found by using underspends for this year and next that would usually be returned to the Treasury.

Education officials characterise this allowance by the chancellor as coming close to new money being provided.

But there is an issue with using one-off annual underspends to fund permanent pay commitments.

Come the next spending review, the extra money needed for the pay rises will need to be baked into broader government plans.

As it stands the overall budget for those plans looks far too tight to accommodate these bumper pay rises.

For many, this is more evidence that spending plans for after 2024 are a complete fiction.

But they are potentially a fiction that both parties will fight next year’s election committed to.

As for doctors, the news is less positive for the government.

It appears that both sides are locked in a total stalemate, with Rishi Sunak refusing more talks with the BMA.

For junior doctors, this is seen as more existential than a simple pay negotiation – it is about stopping medics leaving the UK and how the profession is valued.

The practical outcome, however, will be more strike action extending through the year.

That’s bad for patients.

But given his commitment to cut waiting lists, it’s also bad for the prime minister.

But the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Paul Nowak, told Sky News it would be “remiss of the government to ignore the concerns of NHS staff”.

“I think [junior doctors] have been very clear all along that what they want to see is a pathway to pay restoration,” he said. “That’s really important if we’re going to solve the recruitment and retention crisis in our NHS.

“Now, I don’t think [the unions] believe the government is going to put 35% on the table this year. I think what they want from the government is to set out how they are going to restore pay and how they are going to solve the recruitment and retention crisis for junior doctors, and indeed for more senior staff in the NHS.”

Mr Nowak added: “Across the public and private sector, workers are still facing another real terms pay cut, we’ve got a government that’s got no long-term plan for boosting wages and instead, it actually is intent on attacking trade unions who are standing up for people to get decent wage rises.

“I want a government that’s serious about engaging with unions and serious about listening to public and private sector workers, rather than attacking trade unions.”

Politics

Stablecoins are the best way to ensure US dollar dominance — Web3 CEO

Published

5 hours ago

April 6, 2025

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Stablecoins are the best way to ensure US dollar dominance — Web3 CEO

Stablecoins are the single best tool for the United States government to maintain the US dollar’s hegemony in global financial markets, according to LayerZero Labs CEO and founder Bryan Pellegrino.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, the CEO of LayerZero Labs, which created the LayerZero interoperability protocol recently chosen by Wyoming to be the distribution partner for the Wyoming stablecoin, said that the cross-border accessibility of dollar-pegged tokens makes them an obvious choice to drive US dollar demand. Pellegrino added:

“Stablecoins for the US dollar are the single best tool — the last Trojan Horse or vampire attack on every single other currency in the world — whether it is Argentina, whether it is Venezuela, whether it is all of the countries that have massive inflation.”

The CEO said he expects support for stablecoins on both the federal and state levels to grow because of the obvious boost stablecoins give to the US dollar in foreign exchange markets and the financial moat stablecoin-driven demand will create around the US dollar’s global reserve currency status.

Dollar, US Government, Stablecoin — *Stablecoin market overview. Source:* *RWA.XYZ*

US government looks to stablecoins to protect US dollar

Pellegrino cited Tether’s emerging role as one of the largest buyers of US Treasury bills in the world as evidence of the demand for US debt instruments from stablecoin issuers.

Tether recently became the seventh-largest holder of US Treasuries, beating out Canada, Germany, Norway, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking at the White House Crypto Summit on March 7, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would leverage stablecoins to extend US dollar hegemony and indicated this would be a top priority for officials in 2025.

According to a 2023 report from Chainalysis, over 50% of all the digital asset value transferred to countries in the Latin American region, including Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, and Venezuela was denominated in stablecoins.

The low transaction fees, relative stability, and near-instant settlement times for dollar-pegged stablecoins make these real-world tokenized assets ideal for remittances and stores of value for residents in developing countries suffering from high inflation and capital controls.

Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins

Politics

CFPB likely to step back from crypto regulation — Attorney

Published

7 hours ago

April 6, 2025

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CFPB likely to step back from crypto regulation — Attorney

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will likely see a reduced role in crypto regulations as other federal agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and state-level regulators assume a bigger role in crypto policy, according to Ethan Ostroff, partner at the Troutman Pepper Locke law firm.

“I think with the current administration, my sense is, we are highly likely to see a significant pullback by the CFPB in the context of the activity by other regulators,” Ostroff told Cointelegraph in an interview.

State regulators also have the authority under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) to assume some of the regulatory roles of the CFPB, the attorney said but also added that some regulatory functions will continue to fall within the purview of the CFPB as a matter of established law.

Ostroff cited the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) as regulators to keep an eye on as potential leaders of crypto regulations at the state level.

However, the attorney clarified that while the CFPB may see a diminished role during the Trump administration, the agency would not be outright dismantled during the current regime due to “statutorily mandated obligations and requirements” that require acts of Congress to change.

Trump administration targets CFPB in efficiency push

The Trump administration targeted the CFPB as part of a broader push by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash government spending and reduce the federal debt.

Russell Vought, the recently appointed head of the CFPB, announced major funding cuts to the agency and scaled back operations within days of assuming the helm at the CFPB in February 2025.

Bitcoin Regulation, US Government, United States, Donald Trump — *Source:* *Russell Vought*

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Elon Musk for dismantling the CFPB, which the US senator co-founded back in 2007.

Warren characterized Musk as a “bank robber” and claimed that the Trump administration dismantled the CFPB to undo consumer protection rules and have greater control over the financial system.

In a February 12 interview with Mother Jones, the senator stressed that the Executive Branch of government does not have the statutory authority to fully dismantle the CFPB, which can only be done through Congressional approval.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Politics

Nearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing $2.5 billion in repayments

Published

14 hours ago

April 6, 2025

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Nearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing .5 billion in repayments

Nearly 400,000 creditors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX risk missing out on $2.5 billion in repayments after failing to begin the mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process.

Roughly 392,000 FTX creditors have failed to complete or at least take the first steps of the mandatory Know Your Customer verification, according to an April 2 court filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

FTX users originally had until March 3 to begin the verification process to collect their claims.

“If a holder of a claim listed on Schedule 1 attached thereto did not commence the KYC submission process with respect to such claim on or prior to March 3, 2025, at 4:00 pm (ET) (the “KYC Commencing Deadline”), 2 such claim shall be disallowed and expunged in its entirety,” the filing states.

Nearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing $2.5 billion in repayments — *FTX court filing. Source:* *Bloomberglaw.com*

The KYC deadline has been extended to June 1, 2025, giving users another chance to verify their identity and claim eligibility. Those who fail to meet the new deadline may have their claims permanently disqualified.

According to the court documents, claims under $50,000 could account for roughly $655 million in disallowed repayments, while claims over $50,000 could amount to $1.9 billion — bringing the total at-risk funds to more than $2.5 billion.

The next round of FTX creditor repayments is set for May 30, 2025, with over $11 billion expected to be repaid to creditors with claims of over $50,000.

Under FTX’s recovery plan, 98% of creditors are expected to receive at least 118% of their original claim value in cash.

How FTX users can complete KYC

Many FTX users have reported problems with the KYC process.

However, users who were unable to submit their KYC documentation can resubmit their application and restart the verification process, according to an April 5 X post from Sunil, FTX creditor and Customer Ad-Hoc Committee member.

Impacted users should email FTX support (support@ftx.com) to receive a ticket number, then log in to the support portal, create an account, and re-upload the necessary KYC documents.

FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, processed the first round of repayments in February, distributing $1.2 billion to creditors.

The crypto industry is still recovering from the collapse of FTX and more than 130 subsidiaries launched a series of insolvencies that led to the industry’s longest-ever crypto winter, which saw Bitcoin’s (BTC) price bottom out at around $16,000.

While not a “market-moving catalyst” in itself, the beginning of the FTX repayments is a positive sign for the maturation of the crypto industry, which may see a “significant portion” reinvested into cryptocurrencies, Alvin Kan, chief operating officer at Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph.