Why would it be terrible? Asset prices would be cheap and get bid up by foreign investment from the Eurozone, and the export sector would help to offset the domestic depression that is going to occur. The UK is basically a G7-sized version of Iceland. Not as bad, but similar in type. Way too much leverage, massive exposure to the busted financial and real estate sectors, little manufacturing base, and still horrendously overvalued property prices and wages on an international basis. You think Sterling will hit parity vs the Euro. I agree. What you don't realise is that it is going to hit parity against the US Dollar too. The UK will have 1% rates within the next year or so. Anyone holding sterling, or UK assets of any kind, is a madman. Sell your pounds, your house, your government bonds, your FTSE stocks, convert to Yen, Euros, and Dollars. Emigrate to a tax haven or place with 0% capital gains tax, come back in 3-4 years, and you will find your net worth has gone doubled in £ terms. Meanwhile everyone else will be in negative equity, fired or fearing it, possibly bankrupted by credit card and mortgage debts. In the land of the broke, the solvent man is king. You will be able to pick up prime UK property for bargain prices, just like in the 1970s.
Even official inflation topped in the high 20's during the seventies right? That's pretty bad, no? How did they manage to get out of that loophole?
Charts seems to agree with Cutten we need to take out the 1983 lows on cable/ dollar @ 1.03.... 0.89 looks a nice eyball target.
Hello Cutten, good post -I can't find fault with what you say. When I say that it is terrible, what I mean is that it is terrible for those for whom it is unavoidable to hold sterling assets. Sterling is getting battered and they are getting fcuked over largely thanks to the actions of Crash Gordon. I do realize that sterling was overvalued but is the slide being precipitated by Labour cronies who have been forewarned that the UK is joining the Euro? (& by cronies, I mean Goldman Sucks amongst others) & when you talk about parity -you may be right, but less than a year ago many were speculating that you would be getting $3/pound by now. Call me a contrarian but when everyone is so bearish I tend to doubt it. I would be very interested to know what you think about two things. Firstly, how likely is it that the UK will join the Euro? Is it inevitable? Secondly, what makes the UK so much worse than the rest? I suspect that the UK is slightly more open than say Spain and to some extent is taking a hit earlier rather than later as the US did. (Honestly, what about all these Spanish banks who allegedly never got involved in sub-prime...) This second point is the one that puzzles me the most. A few years ago I probably would have regarded sterling as a safe haven... & just say the dollar collapses. Where does that leave other currencies? I think that if this were to happen you would be best flipping a coin to find out how for example cable would react.
BROWN READY TO SWAP POUND FOR EURO http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/73968 Why is just the Daily Express covering this story? I'm not sure I've ever come across anyone who reads the Express...
I do not think the UK will adopt the Euro anytime soon.The Express is an absurdly right wing comic like paper who would find fault with Brown even in the best of times(not a Brown fan BTW). This story has been on all the major news shows the last couple of days and many others plus nearly all the papers. However I still feel the £ has a way to go against both Dollar and Euro,there will be small bounces but ultimately long £ equates to long and wrong,all depends on your tolerance levels. Although the BOE publicly say they support a strong £,similar to the Fed supporting a strong Dollar whilst it got hammered they are secretly probably guilty of benign neglect,similar to the Fed over the last few years.
Mandy's scheming chums and their suicidal plot to take us into the euro http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1092363/Mandys-scheming-chums-suicidal-plot-euro.html