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When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

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Re: When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

#71

Post by [deleted] »

m-i-l wrote: post #65
nabla9 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that Soros did not hurt UK economy. Just bruised some egos at the Bank of England by showing their stupid mistakes.

"Soros did not hurt UK economy. Just bruised some egos at the Bank of England by showing their stupid mistakes." From the article: "At 11AM, the British government announced they would increase interest rates 200 basis points, from 10% to 12%. ... [later that day] an interest rate increase of another 300 basis points, from 12% to 15%." That means millions of ordinary people suddenly, not even overnight but on the sam…

[deleted]

Re: When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

#72

Post by nostrademons »

andybak wrote: post #62
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "A generation of lazy people who don't work hard" I am sorry for derailing, but how does that happen, did they come out like a faulty batch from a factory? The mantra of "It's important to work hard" needs to die. Today we have fewer friends than ever, population is unhealthy and the biggest killer of young men is suicide. Please don't perpetuate this nonsense. It should be: "Work smart, and look after yourself/ yo…

That phrase alone gave me a poor feeling about the whole comment. It was unnecessary and glib.

It was chosen deliberately. HN has a wide audience. Of the 4 causes I explicitly listed, most people will shake their heads yes to two of them, feel indifferent to one, and feel insulted by one. This applies regardless of which group you belong to. I have friends that would think "Yes, yes, it's the lazy youth today" and be gravely insulted by the implication that corporate leadership is incompetent; I also have friends (in government) who would agree with both the observations on the lazy youth of today and the corrupt corporate leadership but be gravely insulted by the idea that incentives within our society might not result in the best behavior.

The meta-point I'm making is that every group believes our current problems are somebody else's fault, but what we're really facing is a systemic breakdown of the attributes that make for a functioning society. The other comment on this article, "Every empire has created the conditions of its collapse" has it right. When you're inside of the collapse, the idea that the collapse might be an inevitable result of the empire seems inconceivable, because the empire is all you've ever known. So a lot of people go around looking for a human adversary to blame, usually someone who was your countryman until recently, when really the system that created the country makes its demise inevitable.

Re: When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

#74

Post by lordnacho »

viburnum wrote: post #39

I don’t understand why it is that the hike in interest rates had to fail. Had the speculators bought tied up so much liquidity that nobody had pounds to sell to the UK’s central bank?

This move often fails because you can never hike the rate enough, since you don't want to hurt borrowers. In other words, you have competing motives that don't reconcile.

It's also often seen as a desperate tactic, the kind of thing that is done right before capitulation. Which of course makes it even less likely to work.

Re: When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

#75

Post by frobozz »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #60
nostrademons wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Market prices for currencies reflect what you can buy with them. If a country's economy is strong, they're exporting a lot of things that the world wants to buy from them, and the world wants to invest in a bunch in a number of securities denominated in their currency, the currency will be strong. If the country's economy weakens (relative to other countries in the global economy), the currency will weaken. There cou…

> "A generation of lazy people who don't work hard" I am sorry for derailing, but how does that happen, did they come out like a faulty batch from a factory? The mantra of "It's important to work hard" needs to die. Today we have fewer friends than ever, population is unhealthy and the biggest killer of young men is suicide. Please don't perpetuate this nonsense. It should be: "Work smart, and look after yourself/ yo…

We must not forget that this poison has been published by current government front benchers.

Worst idlers in the world.

Re: When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

#76

Post by redler »

scandox wrote: post #49
ajxs wrote: post #45

There seems to be an abundance of posts about Soros himself getting flagged killed in this thread. Why is that? Are his character and his political ambitions not relevant to a discussion about his demonstrated ability and intent to cause massive financial disturbance in the global economy?

I think his character and intentions have become such a trope that it has made it near impossible to gauge the good or bad faith of the person who starts discussing them. In a sense his name has now transcended rational discussion and become a symbol. Probably there needs to be an internet "law" for this, like Poe's Law or Godwin's law...You just cannot know if the person who names him wants a sane discussion or to j…

We might call it Soros’ Law, but that could be inflammatory. Which may be perfect.

Re: When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

#77

Post by xkjkls »

ajxs wrote: post #45

There seems to be an abundance of posts about Soros himself getting flagged killed in this thread. Why is that? Are his character and his political ambitions not relevant to a discussion about his demonstrated ability and intent to cause massive financial disturbance in the global economy?

Why is betting against the pound causing a massive financial disturbance in the economy? One could equally argue that the overvaluation of pound caused a massive disturbance in the economy.

Re: When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

#78

Post by toron123 »

ajxs wrote: post #45

There seems to be an abundance of posts about Soros himself getting flagged killed in this thread. Why is that? Are his character and his political ambitions not relevant to a discussion about his demonstrated ability and intent to cause massive financial disturbance in the global economy?

Soros caused gigantic crisis in Indonesia in 90. Many people went bankrupt and killed themselves. No wonder many want him dead.

Re: When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

#79

Post by elmar »

elmar wrote: post #56

This incident was the main reason the UK didn't enter the Euro. This wonderful BBC documentary explains everything on detail. https://youtu.be/K_oET45GzMI

Sometimes I wonder if this incident didn't happen, would the UK had entered the Euro and Brexit wouldn't be on the horizon today.

Re: When George Soros Broke the British Pound (2014)

#80

Post by xkjkls »

sukilot wrote: post #57
ajxs wrote: post #45

There seems to be an abundance of posts about Soros himself getting flagged killed in this thread. Why is that? Are his character and his political ambitions not relevant to a discussion about his demonstrated ability and intent to cause massive financial disturbance in the global economy?

The article explains that the UK government caused the massive disturbance. Soros made his money betting that it was happen.

Exactly. Yes, there were many members of the UK that became effectively less wealthy when the pound was devalued, but there were many members of other European nations that effectively became more wealthy. Why are we valuing one over the other.
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