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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

#161
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> intentionally cutting themselves out of a massive common market probably isn't helping much. My understanding is that they never intended to leave the common market but to gain a trade deal that would leave market access substantially the same. However, the EU wouldn’t let them keep access in the divorce if for no reason other than as a cautionary tale for other member states. So, it turned ugly and there they are.

The EU did not want them keeping access because the UK also wanted to write their own rules. This meant that if the UK decided to lower standards to, say, pursue a US or China trade deal, but the EU let them keep their market access, then they would just be able to smuggle goods into the EU single market. Pretty much every sticking point of the UK/EU negotiations boiled down this. And the stated reasoning was an "I'm…

What you label “I’m me” I say is an individual country’s ability to self determination which every sovereign state should have. Globalist elitists have been getting richer and richer and it was time for a change

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#163
post #2

All government revenues are the result of taxing citizens. Citizens only have money to be taxed if they are employed in productive money-generating enterprises. If the laws and regulations of the nation are such that the citizens can’t make money, then the government has no choice but to cut taxes and regulations until private business can flourish again. Otherwise it’s a never ending strangling of business, lower re…

Capitalism isn't working?!? Let's do it harder!

Because we know alternatives work better?

Capitalism, flawed as it is, is the one economic system that helped move billions people out of poverty.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#164
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Having a weak currency means you're selling cheap and buying expensive, so it's not clear how it benefits you. It certainly benefits everyone else.

Pay your workers in cheap local currency, sell in strong foreign currency.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#165
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of my friends who regularly made trips to Europe pre-pandemic have been lured into making their first trips since 2019 due to the strength of the dollar against the Euro. Probably will be many similarly attracted to the UK by the weak Pound. Guess that's good news for the travel industry even if so much else is going wrong.

I lived in London for some years and wouldn’t choose to go to the UK as a tourist in the winter. It’s bleak and damp. If the UK travel industry does benefit from the cheap pound, it probably won’t have any effect until next summer.

I lived in London for some years and wouldn’t choose to go to the UK as a tourist in the summer. There is a reason everyone in the UK goes to Europe in summer - it is much nicer.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#166
post #135

I am a complete ignorant regarding economy but one thing I was quite certain about was that when you print a lot of money, then your currency devaluates. So why given that the US have printed huge amounts of dollars in the last couple of years, the dollar is winning both against the Sterling and the Euro? Is it just that war in Ukraine have made investors ignore the huge inflation in the dollar? Maybe after the midte…

If a currency is mostly used locally, the effects of printing it can't be diluted away and are locally concentrated. If the currency is global, the issuer can just print it, reap the benefits, and let others soak most of the damage. For example, say Argentine prints lots of Pesos. They don't circulate a lot outside the country itself, so it's mostly cash in argentinians hands that devaluate. Now, say US prints lots of Dollars. Many countries have large dollar reserves, so those are screwed by devaluation, as they soak the brunt of the burden that would be from US citizens alone, if the dollar were just another local currency.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#167
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in London for some years and wouldn’t choose to go to the UK as a tourist in the winter. It’s bleak and damp. If the UK travel industry does benefit from the cheap pound, it probably won’t have any effect until next summer.

I lived in London for some years and wouldn’t choose to go to the UK as a tourist in the summer. There is a reason everyone in the UK goes to Europe in summer - it is much nicer.

I live in London and would choose to go to the UK as a tourist at pretty much any time of the year. Plenty to see and do.

London weather gets bad rep but I find it pretty good. Rarely goes below zero degrees Celsius and is rarely so hot that you struggle. I actually prefer London weather to central/south European one for example. More consistent, pleasant all year round. This is all personal though...

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#168
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU did not want them keeping access because the UK also wanted to write their own rules. This meant that if the UK decided to lower standards to, say, pursue a US or China trade deal, but the EU let them keep their market access, then they would just be able to smuggle goods into the EU single market. Pretty much every sticking point of the UK/EU negotiations boiled down this. And the stated reasoning was an "I'm…

What you label “I’m me” I say is an individual country’s ability to self determination which every sovereign state should have. Globalist elitists have been getting richer and richer and it was time for a change

All states in the EU already had and have sovereign self determination. It is a voluntary membership.

As the UK is demonstrating, it was always possible to leave simply by giving notice, and it's possible to negotiate a new arrangement.

The "I'm me" refers to the UK wanting its cake and eating it - by not meeting the EU half way in the trade relationship, of course the UK does not get the benefits either, but they assumed they would get similar benefits.

Sucks for those of us who live in the UK. We've basically lost a bunch of rights and privileges. For the individual person in the UK I would say we have less personal sovereignty now than we did before, just because there's less we are free to do with our lives than before. For UK businesses that trade with the EU - and this includes IT contractors - there are considerable barriers to trade now as well, which are causing customers in the EU to be increasing disinclined to bother with UK suppliers.

Much of the talk about the EU is about trade, but there were a lot of personal freedoms enshrined in the EU treaty granted to all EU member citizens as a condition of membership as well, which we UK citizens have now lost. For many of us it's a severe and painful loss. You can probably tell, I care much less about the trade, and much more about what personal rights and freedoms individuals (and families etc) have to be free to enjoy their lives.

I think individual persons have been harmed by Brexit much more than a "global elite", who can manage their assets just fine and aren't really affected.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#169
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also means you're paying your labor cheap. That makes you more competitive.

But competitive simply means your products sell for less. The question was how does selling for less and buying for more benefit you?

You don't sell for less, since you sell in foreign currency. So you get the same amount of foreign currency (price in USD remains the same), but you need less converted to your internal currency to pay your labor.

But then you can invest that extra profit in decreasing your foreign currency price, thus becoming more competitive.

You can google for longer explanations of why a weak currency is excellent for exporters, this is well established.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#170
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no economist, but intentionally cutting themselves out of a massive common market probably isn't helping much.

> intentionally cutting themselves out of a massive common market probably isn't helping much. My understanding is that they never intended to leave the common market but to gain a trade deal that would leave market access substantially the same. However, the EU wouldn’t let them keep access in the divorce if for no reason other than as a cautionary tale for other member states. So, it turned ugly and there they are.

Most of the trade deals were laws passed by all 28 or similar members of the EU where you get these trade perks for keeping these conditions. You can either be in or out but the EU central bodies don't really have the power to go changing them to accommodate one atroppy member.
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