If the EU do it then so will we in the UK
Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s announcement of a planned “Savings and Investment Union” caused widespread concern. She stated that the EU aims to mobilize peoples’ savings for urgent investments, such as infrastructure, climat, and defense.
That is not how that works. They do not control or own your savings. They use them against the good faith of one of the largest governments on earth the EU. You do not lose a dime. It is as if the money is being used at a bank to further loans.
Aren’t most (non-equity) savings already at a bank and being used by the banks? This sounds more like forcing banks to buy more government bonds.
DB2
I’ve heard many opinions about what money is. Most, even by Nobel Prize awardees, are wrong. Elon Musk did say what money really is when he founded X.com, renamed PayPal. Bits in computers, more generally, an accounting system. How was money created back at the start of history?
So, what is money? A corrupted accounting system. As long as people believe, it works. When they lose faith, inflation and hyperinflation. The Devil take the hindmost.
Government bonds are fake gold deposits, receipts with no gold backing.
The Captain
Given the state of the EU’s finances that not very reassuring
From the link:
If savers agree to this offer, they would no longer be creditors to the bank, but instead creditors to the EU or its member states. This would allow the government to mobilize peoples’ savings and use them for infrastructure, defense, or other government spending.
I suspect the “if savers agree” will soon be “savers are going to agree”
As of February 2025, the U.S. Treasury debt held by the public, excluding intragovernmental holdings, is approximately $28.91 trillion, with Treasury bills, notes, and bonds making up a significant portion. This is exactly what the OP describes: individuals voluntarily “giving up” their cash savings to buy government debt which it can use for all kinds of “urgent” investments.
The only difference between this and the EU “mobilizing people’s savings” is that the US plan is voluntary while it isn’t clear whether the EU plan is to tempt private investors (voluntary) or confiscate the savings as forced loans – which is kind of what banks do with fractional reserve banking.
Wendy
They have been talking about this for years but they may be waiting for a digital euro which will make it so simple for them:
Almost. It will become “by using our currency, savers agree to (whatever we say).”
@WendyBG Consider the source. The EU is not confiscating anything.
It is called a monetary system.
Biggest con. ever:
J M Keynes’ view on the monetary system
By a continuing process of inflation, Governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.
https://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/archive/keynes_persuasion/Inflation.htm
Send your sterling my way. I will gladly help take it off your hands.
But we know you are in love with the con.
Sorry, but most of it was converted to gold and silver many years ago. I’m glad that I studied Keynes when I did my economics degree 
Gold at another record high (really the US dollar is just at a record low against money)
You will never sell the top so this is a worthless exercise.
I don’t know of anyone who got poor by saving gold and silver.
Compare and contrast with fiat currency.
Oh, I don’t know. Someone who bought in 1980 had to wait 50 years just to get back to the same price. In fact within a few years they had lost 2/3 of its value.
Chart adjusted for inflation:
On the other hand, if you saved money in bonds denominated in filthy US fiat dollars, you made a bundle over the same time period.
You have never known or had any value system outside of fiat currencies to value your gold and silver. Without fiat currencies to value the stuff you have a metal sitting in a vault for no reason at all.
Nah. Gold and silver were used in the high-tech manufacturing industry. I know because the parts bought were proprietary products using those metals in their manufacture. One item was 50% pure gold.
The argument still stands. It is only valuable in dollars and cents. Without a fiat currency being applied it means nothing.
