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British pound hits record low against the dollar

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Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#121

Post by hristov »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #105

The UK could now consider making stuff, and exporting that stuff. Probably good to do a London based startup too, sell to the US. Get your seniors for the price of a US junior (say $60k/y)

They can probably try to do that but Margaret Thatcher completely destroyed the UKs manufacturing base in order to screw over labor unions. The Thatcher theory was screw over manufacturing in favor of financial services. She was widely praised by the financial press for doing so.

The plunging pound does not help the financial services sector, it hurts it. Then there is Brexit which seriously hurts both the manufacturing and financial services sectors.

So the UK can increase manufacturing but it will be a long hard slog after they intentionally and continuously gutted the sector for the last 30 years.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#122

Post by pavlov »

nyokodo wrote: post #96
woodruffw wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to have my cake and eat it, too! From my outsider’s perspective, the EU’s justification is far stronger than a “cautionary tale”: a Union means a Union. No other country or state structure in the world allows its constituent members to carve out only the bits that they themselves like; that would subvert the entire point of the Union.

> No other country or state structure in the world allows its constituent members to carve out only the bits that they themselves like The EU more or less does exactly that with Norway, a non-EU country with common market access and freedom of movement etc. That was the model I recall being promoted for a UK/EU relationship. They never intended to leave the common market or eschew all regulatory commonality.

Norway is a rule-taker that pretty much implements every EU directive but has no say in how they’re made.

Britain is too proud to agree to that. It would have been very hard to explain to voters why UK resigned all its influence in the EU but still has to follow all the rules. And anything else meant losing access to the common market. This was explained many times during the Brexit campaign and subsequent years of confusion, but somehow the idea persisted that UK would eventually get an exception that breaks the fundamental design of the common market by allowing one country to produce goods and services that don’t follow the common market’s rules.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#123

Post by hristov »

lisper wrote: post #84

I don't get it. The dollar is supposed to be inflating, so it should take more dollars to buy things. But it takes fewer dollars to buy euros and pounds and stocks and bonds. The prices of all of these things, denominated in dollars, is plummeting. WTF?

The answer is simple -- it is just a flight to safety. And the dollar is the safest place to hold assets at this point. The inflation is not the biggest issue. If inflation was the biggest issue, everyone would be holding the stocks of companies that make the things that are inflating the most. But those stocks are going down with everything else.

The problem is the damage Jerome Powell is intentionally doing to the economy in the name of fighting inflation.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#124

Post by CogitoCogito »

echelon wrote: post #95
chanc3e wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly all A&E (ER) rooms are managed by the NHS. Private ones are few and far between so it’s likely that a tourist with insurance will end up in a standard A&E - which can have very long wait times[1]. The NHS is also using private clinics to help clear backlogs - so even private insurance can lead to a long time to see a consultant. Ambulances also do not have good response times. [1] https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/…

I hate to chime in with an ask, but does someone have a good read on healthcare in developed nations and mind commenting? I always hear and read complaints that the US doesn't have a single player public option for health insurance, and that it makes our country one of the worst. Other nations with "good health care" seem to pay their workers less, have higher taxes, have long wait times at the ER, weak militaries, e…

> Other nations with "good health care" seem to pay their workers less, have higher taxes, have long wait times at the ER, weak militaries, etc.

Are these conclusions based upon some sort of systematic analysis of yours?

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#125

Post by zoid_ »

echelon wrote: post #95
chanc3e wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly all A&E (ER) rooms are managed by the NHS. Private ones are few and far between so it’s likely that a tourist with insurance will end up in a standard A&E - which can have very long wait times[1]. The NHS is also using private clinics to help clear backlogs - so even private insurance can lead to a long time to see a consultant. Ambulances also do not have good response times. [1] https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/…

I hate to chime in with an ask, but does someone have a good read on healthcare in developed nations and mind commenting? I always hear and read complaints that the US doesn't have a single player public option for health insurance, and that it makes our country one of the worst. Other nations with "good health care" seem to pay their workers less, have higher taxes, have long wait times at the ER, weak militaries, e…

As someone working in the industry, I can say that unfortunately NHS funds are very poorly managed with lots of corruption within management. My believe is that a lot of the staff are passionate and hard-working, however at least an equal number of staff are worn-down, disillusioned and dispassionate due to years of managerial neglect and high public expectation.

There is also a believe that the NHS is a single national entity, which is not the case. Both Wales and Scottish have a national trust whereas England has 100's, totally 217 trusts as of April 2020 [1]. This does not allow for combined purchasing power, shared resources and causes duplicate effort in almost every area.

How about dentistry? Seems odd that for the most part that's not covered under the NHS. It wasn't until adulthood I understood all the jokes about British peoples teeth!

My hope is that we can move to another model that is directly free to the end user, reduce the eye watering waiting times and put the almost £200B annual funding to good use.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_trust

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#126

Post by quonn »

currenciessfe wrote: post #91
rr808 wrote: post #5

Crazy times it wasn't long ago that a pound bought over $2. The interesting thing this week is that the most fragile and indebted country that the EU has bailed out for 30 years straight (Italy) has elected a govt that doesn't like the EU. Good times ahead.

It's not that simple. Germany wanted a country like Italy in the Euro so it would pull the currency down and not allow it to appreciate too much (like the Deutsche Mark did). That would would be very bad for German exports.

Spain and other countries, yes. Nobody wants the extreme instability of Italy.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#127

Post by random_kris »

rich_sasha wrote: post #113
wsc981 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Germany benefitted hugely from southern European countries joining the Euro as it made it much easier for Germany to export goods to southern Europe. At the same time it was made much easier (at lower interest rates) for southern European countries to borrow money from northern European countries and other markets, as creditors would feel more secure that they'd get their money back. Creditors would assume the n…

This narrative is kind of correct, but it irks me when people somehow blame northern Europe for southern Europe's debt. No one forced them to overborrow, especially since it mostly happened in times prosperity. Generally speaking, access to cheap debt is seen as a uniformly good thing.

Well the northern European will blame southern for not being frugal enough.

But this is the same as drug dealer saying their dead customer was not responsible enough. Yeah it true, but some people just are not responsible for their own actions and the dealer was happily benefiting all the time from him

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#128

Post by reducesuffering »

lisper wrote: post #84

I don't get it. The dollar is supposed to be inflating, so it should take more dollars to buy things. But it takes fewer dollars to buy euros and pounds and stocks and bonds. The prices of all of these things, denominated in dollars, is plummeting. WTF?

You have 100 magic dollars in circulation and 10 basket of goods; 10 per basket of goods. Then, there only 8 basket of goods. No change in circulation. Still, now 125 magic dollars per basket of goods.

Goods production is down.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#129

Post by Nursie »

imtringued wrote: post #119
Nursie wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The latest crash in value is a direct result of two things last week - The Bank of England monetary policy committee deciding on Thursday to show “restraint” in only putting the interest rate up by 0.5%, because they want to wait and see what the Chancellor’s “mini-budget” would bring on Friday. That mini budget being a clusterfuck of unfunded tax giveaways to the already high-earning and wealthy.

So people are suspecting collusion between the government and Bank of England?

Personally I suspect incompetence on both sides, rather than collusion or any intent.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#130

Post by rich_sasha »

random_kris wrote: post #127
rich_sasha wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This narrative is kind of correct, but it irks me when people somehow blame northern Europe for southern Europe's debt. No one forced them to overborrow, especially since it mostly happened in times prosperity. Generally speaking, access to cheap debt is seen as a uniformly good thing.

Well the northern European will blame southern for not being frugal enough. But this is the same as drug dealer saying their dead customer was not responsible enough. Yeah it true, but some people just are not responsible for their own actions and the dealer was happily benefiting all the time from him

When dealing with the public, sure I agree. But not at all when dealing with (supposedly) professional bodies such as national governments, I don't buy it.

I'm not pointing the "overspending" finger either, just saying, countries should take responsibility for their actions, not complain at the enablers.

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