What is going on in Brittan?

I just came by an exchange booth saying

EUR: 44.43

GBP: 46.31

I have never seen the pound so low compared to the Bath (or to the Euro for that matter).

What’s up with Brittan? Did you guys run out of money?

Ten years of Labour rule !!!!

Ten years of Labour rule !!!!

Gordon's rule of economy to be exact...

BT

What is going on in Brittan?

I just came by an exchange booth saying

EUR: 44.43

GBP: 46.31

I have never seen the pound so low compared to the Bath (or to the Euro for that matter).

What's up with Brittan? Did you guys run out of money?

What have you been doing....hiding under a rock? Did you really have to bring this up.....they will all be in here in no time, having a good old pommie winge about it.

Here we go again, time to get the violin out, just freaking deal with it.

''No more boom and bust''

Now we only have bust.... Thanks Gordon.. you moron...

Isn't this about the level of a few years ago & then Thai Baht went down the gurgler after the Thai Govt. expired its foreign cash reserves...?????? watch this space & just put up with it...

Good for you mate, at least your not going after the yanks!

''No more boom and bust''

Now we only have bust.... Thanks Gordon.. you moron...

Been wondering how long I'd have to wait before I heard someone refer to the British Pound as the British Ounce !

Wasn't happening quick enough, so I decided to do it myself !

(I shouldn't talk though, as the Canadian $ hasn't been faring much better of late either.)

Watch what happens to the USA with Obama's liberals in control! The taxes paid by the working people are headed straight for those with their hands out; from the willingly unemployed, to the illegal aliens. The dollar will soon follow the pound into the world's economic toilet.

''No more boom and bust''

Now we only have bust.... Thanks Gordon.. you moron...

I wonder if the new guy running the Tory Party Ken Clark would fair any better,Dont forget the last time the Tories were in power we ended up in the same mess as we are in now,PS I am not a labour or Tory supporter I hate them all Never voted and never will.

Dont forget guys under the Tories we only got 34 Baht to the pound

Ten years of Labour rule !!!!

Gordon's rule of economy to be exact...

As an American, I was always told that the Scots were frugal and good economic managers and not spend-thrifts. Is this not true...why and how did this Scot run the UK economy into a ditch?

Ten years of Labour rule !!!!

Gordon's rule of economy to be exact...

As an American, I was always told that the Scots were frugal and good economic managers and not spend-thrifts. Is this not true...why and how did this Scot run the UK economy into a ditch?

As an American you should know that it was an American that run the world economy into a very big ditch

As an American you should know that it was an American that run the world economy into a very big ditch

No, Mintman, it was several dozen Americans, called the Democratic members of Congress, including the newly crowned messiah ... umm ... President, Barack Obama! THEY, and their supporters, ran Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the sub prime mortgage giants. NOT George Bush!

Ten years of Labour rule !!!!

Gordon's rule of economy to be exact...

As an American, I was always told that the Scots were frugal and good economic managers and not spend-thrifts. Is this not true...why and how did this Scot run the UK economy into a ditch?

As an American you should know that it was an American that run the world economy into a very big ditch

Oh I do agree on that...the Bush regime did all it could to enrich its friends and impoverish all other Americans (and many others around the world).

As an American you should know that it was an American that run the world economy into a very big ditch

Oh I do agree on that...the Bush regime did all it could to enrich its friends and impoverish all other Americans (and many others around the world).

Let me make it clear that I was NOT a supporter of George Bush's administration. But the fact is that the Democratically controlled Congress was far more responsible for the economic crisis than was George Bush. Republicans, particularly Senator McCain, presented bills that would have limited the wild actions of the sub prime mortgage groups, and Wall Street speculators. Democrats voted those down, and continued to create and encourage more of such activity. That is what led to the economic collapse.

Interesting that a topic is started about the British Pound and within one page of posts ends up discussing American politics.

Ten years of Labour rule !!!!

Gordon's rule of economy to be exact...

As an American, I was always told that the Scots were frugal and good economic managers and not spend-thrifts. Is this not true...why and how did this Scot run the UK economy into a ditch?

He spent too long south of the border, sucking up to his university friends, and lost his sporran!

If i " just came by an exchange booth" today showing those rates i would keep on going by !!!!

I see rates of (an average) just below 49/GBP

And yes, i also remember it at around 32-35 like another poster did

Penkoprod

As an American you should know that it was an American that run the world economy into a very big ditch

No, Mintman, it was several dozen Americans, called the Democratic members of Congress, including the newly crowned messiah ... umm ... President, Barack Obama! THEY, and their supporters, ran Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the sub prime mortgage giants. NOT George Bush!

Did Milton Freidman, George Stigler, Reagon, Thatcher and the drive towards de-regulation pass you by? There has been a long-term shift in how financial services are organised and regulated which created the present situation over a period of time. Yes, sub-prime is part of the problem but it is also about a great deal of liquidity chasing high returns (read an excessive accumulation of wealth in some quarters), the creation of new high-yielding financial instruments, derivatives etc and the way these have been packaged and sold across national boundaries with very little regulatory oversight.

Regarding the UK, Brown is only to blame in the sense that a man who didn't maintain his roof in the good times may be culpable when the hurricane hits. He did not create the hurricane! Arguably Blair and the government as a whole made the mistake of sticking with the conventional wisdom from the early 1990s that de-regulation and letting the market work was the answer to everything, and the growing levels of indebtedness have not helped. But to say this is the cause is to focus on the wider environment rather than the real precipitating factors.

Ten years of Labour rule !!!!

Gordon's rule of economy to be exact...

As an American, I was always told that the Scots were frugal and good economic managers and not spend-thrifts. Is this not true...why and how did this Scot run the UK economy into a ditch?

Again Gordon Brown is actually a staunch Scottish Nationalist who wants to torpedo England and then let Scotland break from the UK and get loads of dosh in aid from Europe.

''No more boom and bust''

Now we only have bust.... Thanks Gordon.. you moron...

I wonder if the new guy running the Tory Party Ken Clark would fair any better,Dont forget the last time the Tories were in power we ended up in the same mess as we are in now,PS I am not a labour or Tory supporter I hate them all Never voted and never will.

Yes, but the tories know how to ride out recessions and fix the problem while the sun is shining, not like the current bunch of labour clowns!

some say the pound could go to the 1985 level the next few years:

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/the-uk-not-ok-29505

As an American you should know that it was an American that run the world economy into a very big ditch

No, Mintman, it was several dozen Americans, called the Democratic members of Congress, including the newly crowned messiah ... umm ... President, Barack Obama! THEY, and their supporters, ran Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the sub prime mortgage giants. NOT George Bush!

Oh, give us all a break...it was the George W. "Republican" Administration (a.k.a., Asleep At The Wheel/We Don't Need Financial Regulation Gang...or said another way, several dozen key "Republicans" running the major departments within the Executive Branch...like the Treasury Dept and the Security & Exchange Commission) which was in power for the last eight years thru mid-day 20 Jan 09. Any one party in power for too long with a bad leader (George W.) is usually a bad thing. Give the Democrats eight years in power and they can probably mess things up too; however, but, the last eight years have been produced and directed by the George W. Republican Administration!

As an American you should know that it was an American that run the world economy into a very big ditch

No, Mintman, it was several dozen Americans, called the Democratic members of Congress, including the newly crowned messiah ... umm ... President, Barack Obama! THEY, and their supporters, ran Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the sub prime mortgage giants. NOT George Bush!

Oh, give us all a break...it was the George W. "Republican" Administration (a.k.a., Asleep At The Wheel/We Don't Need Financial Regulation Gang...or said another way, several dozen key "Republicans" running the major departments within the Executive Branch...like the Treasury Dept and the Security & Exchange Commission) which was in power for the last eight years thru mid-day 20 Jan 09. Any one party in power for too long with a bad leader (George W.) is usually a bad thing. Give the Democrats eight years in power and they can probably mess things up too; however, but, the last eight years have been produced and directed by the George W. Republican Administration!

Well, that would explain how the GBP got so high to start with. That and the 17 year cycle of course.

What is going on in Brittan?

I just came by an exchange booth saying

EUR: 44.43

GBP: 46.31

I have never seen the pound so low compared to the Bath (or to the Euro for that matter).

What's up with Brittan? Did you guys run out of money?

What have you been doing....hiding under a rock? Did you really have to bring this up.....they will all be in here in no time, having a good old pommie winge about it.

What stops me whinging is casting a glance at the OZ peso, I mean it could be worse, unless you're a skip of course

LONDON (Reuters) - Currency markets have been extremely volatile in recent months but the government does not target exchange rates, Chancellor Alistair Darling said on Tuesday.

The pound has fallen sharply against most major currencies in the last year, raising complaints from countries like France, who are worried about their loss of competitiveness, that Britain needs to do something to arrest the decline.

One G7 source has even told Reuters that sterling weakness could become an issue at next week's meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bankers in Rome.

Darling made clear on Tuesday that the government had no plans to meddle with its exchange rate, recalling that past attempts at trying to manipulate currencies had failed.

"We've seen extraordinary volatility in markets generally and in the currency markets in the last few months," Darling told a Lords committee.

"Our policy is to target inflation, it's not to target the currency. That has been tried in the past. Our inflation target is two percent. And that will remain the position as I've said on a number of occasions in the past."

Few expect any change to the language on exchange rates when the G7 issue their final statement after their Rome meeting on Feb 14, but euro group sources told Reuters last week that everyone was concerned by the recent volatility.

"This (volatility) will warrant a good discussion at the G7 because everyone is concerned about this," one of the euro group sources said.

Will it get worse? My guess is yes. Hang on folks we are all in for a BUMPY ride over the next few years.

You couldn't call it cheery reportage:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/...,604523,00.html