Live data from Hacker News

The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

historyofyesterday.com

21–30 of 182 posts

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#21
post #2

It's great to talk in terms of indices and devaluations and of "breaking the bank of England". The lives affected are not even spared an afterthought.

The Bank of England which was responsible for artificially pumping up the value of sterling is a more appropriate target for blame.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#22
post #3

> For many, it was obvious that the pound sterling was overvalued > The Bank of England was finally forced to give up the fight a few hours after the attack, announcing its exit from the European monetary system with a devaluation of about 15% Sounds like George Soros just fixed a disequilibrium? How is he the bad guy in this story?

> How is he the bad guy in this story?

He’s narratively identifiable. Soros didn’t individually break the BoE. Lots of people were in on the trade. But he did so massively, relative to his personal wealth and to the market, and publicly.

So he gets pinned. Had he not traded the peg would have still broken. We’d just discuss it like we do the Asian or Russian Financial Crises [1][2], which happened five years later. Unrealistic pegs that suffered runs. Not a man “breaking” a Western central bank.

[1] https://www.britannica.com/event/Asian-financial-crisis

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Russian_financial_crisi...

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#23
post #7
post #3

> For many, it was obvious that the pound sterling was overvalued > The Bank of England was finally forced to give up the fight a few hours after the attack, announcing its exit from the European monetary system with a devaluation of about 15% Sounds like George Soros just fixed a disequilibrium? How is he the bad guy in this story?

He's the bad guy of the story because he's a billionaire who made a $1.1Gb at the expense of the ordinary people living in the UK at the time. He forced mortgage rates, for example, to shoot up to 15%, with crippling monthly payments for a large chunk of the population. Note that the article author is a cryptocurrency cultist, so he'll be all in favour of unscrupulous people enriching themselves at the expense of oth…

> He forced mortgage rates, for example, to shoot up to 15%, with crippling monthly payments for a large chunk of the population.

Does British monetary policy not get some blame, here?

It was a sudden shock because they were putting their foot on the scale for quite some time.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#24
post #14
post #2

It's great to talk in terms of indices and devaluations and of "breaking the bank of England". The lives affected are not even spared an afterthought.

> The lives affected are not even spared an afterthought Look at it from a software perspective: there was a huge vulnerability possible. If it hadn't been exploited by this person, someone else would have. It was the Bank of England fault for not patching the exploit and creating the vulnerability.

No post body was provided.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#26
post #14
post #2

It's great to talk in terms of indices and devaluations and of "breaking the bank of England". The lives affected are not even spared an afterthought.

> The lives affected are not even spared an afterthought Look at it from a software perspective: there was a huge vulnerability possible. If it hadn't been exploited by this person, someone else would have. It was the Bank of England fault for not patching the exploit and creating the vulnerability.

Even if I leave my front door unlocked it's not your prerogative to empty my house. The locked door is there to suggest that it's a immensely stupid idea. I cannot begin to imagine the self entitled bull, someone peddles to themselves, to justify corruption and greed at this level.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#27
post #14
post #2

It's great to talk in terms of indices and devaluations and of "breaking the bank of England". The lives affected are not even spared an afterthought.

> The lives affected are not even spared an afterthought Look at it from a software perspective: there was a huge vulnerability possible. If it hadn't been exploited by this person, someone else would have. It was the Bank of England fault for not patching the exploit and creating the vulnerability.

I can only be exploited by people with massive resources. There's not that many people or companies in existence. It's not the same as a software bug that can be exploited by any random hacker

Lots of society still relies on people behaing well overall with the few outliers being ostracized or outlawed when they don't.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#28
post #7
post #3

> For many, it was obvious that the pound sterling was overvalued > The Bank of England was finally forced to give up the fight a few hours after the attack, announcing its exit from the European monetary system with a devaluation of about 15% Sounds like George Soros just fixed a disequilibrium? How is he the bad guy in this story?

He's the bad guy of the story because he's a billionaire who made a $1.1Gb at the expense of the ordinary people living in the UK at the time. He forced mortgage rates, for example, to shoot up to 15%, with crippling monthly payments for a large chunk of the population. Note that the article author is a cryptocurrency cultist, so he'll be all in favour of unscrupulous people enriching themselves at the expense of oth…

> He forced mortgage rates, for example, to shoot up to 15%, with crippling monthly payments for a large chunk of the population.

While this may be true, it is entirely the fault of the dumb UK mortgage market that does not provide for fixed-rate mortgages for the full term of the loan. In the US, 30 year fixed rates are the norm. In the UK you’re lucky to get 5 years fixed.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#29
post #26
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The lives affected are not even spared an afterthought Look at it from a software perspective: there was a huge vulnerability possible. If it hadn't been exploited by this person, someone else would have. It was the Bank of England fault for not patching the exploit and creating the vulnerability.

Even if I leave my front door unlocked it's not your prerogative to empty my house. The locked door is there to suggest that it's a immensely stupid idea. I cannot begin to imagine the self entitled bull, someone peddles to themselves, to justify corruption and greed at this level.

It's not an unlocked door situation and it wasn't illegal. It's more akin to you betting on the wrong horse and being mad at the other guy who bet on the right one for losing your money when it's your fault for gambling instead of doing something else.

Re: The Day George Soros Broke the Bank of England to Make $1.1B (2021)

#30
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's the bad guy of the story because he's a billionaire who made a $1.1Gb at the expense of the ordinary people living in the UK at the time. He forced mortgage rates, for example, to shoot up to 15%, with crippling monthly payments for a large chunk of the population. Note that the article author is a cryptocurrency cultist, so he'll be all in favour of unscrupulous people enriching themselves at the expense of oth…

> He forced mortgage rates, for example, to shoot up to 15%, with crippling monthly payments for a large chunk of the population. Does British monetary policy not get some blame, here? It was a sudden shock because they were putting their foot on the scale for quite some time.

The ERM was Major's big idea, most of his ministers didn't like it. The fact that they still went along with it is unimaginable in British politics today.

Although the market's should not be worshipped, this is probably a good example of why you shouldn't be too ardent in your nudging of them for political reasons.

Post reply on HN