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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

#211

Post by matthewmacleod »

bb123 wrote: post #194
LatteLazy wrote: post #193

The UK is a good example of how much damage you can do yourself (nationally) by just disregarding facts and reality for a few years. Our own biggest enemy is our massive arrogance.

I presume you're referring to Brexit, but this seems to be mostly a strong US dollar and energy crisis story. Europe is in a similar situation so I'm not sure what difference staying/leaving would have made.

Brexit is a good example of that sort of policy, but it's far from the only one. Even in that case, it's not the decision itself that's the issue but the cavalier implementation of it – stuff like introducing lots of red tape for exports, hand-waving away the idea that exports will be affected, and then being shocked when exports collapse.

In this specific case it's not really a "strong dollar/energy crisis" story – the proximate cause is a massive overnight shift in UK government fiscal policy to "let's cut taxes and not spending, and it will all work out" that's obviously spooked everyone.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#212

Post by jerf »

LatteLazy wrote: post #200
bb123 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I presume you're referring to Brexit, but this seems to be mostly a strong US dollar and energy crisis story. Europe is in a similar situation so I'm not sure what difference staying/leaving would have made.

Brexit is example number one but there are 101 other examples (including our approach to energy and our approach to "solving" the energy crisis). The USD is strong, but that's only half the story here. Just look at EUR vs GBP since Brexit: down 20%. We're doing 20% worse than Europe, an economy with the same issues around energy as ours, plus no real decisive government and which just finished dealing with a debt cri…

"We're doing 20% worse than Europe"

While your core conclusion may not change, you shouldn't do that; strength of currency is not a straight number you can use to measure the strength of an economy like that. GDP change would be better and I still think that one stinks too. Despite the use of the word "strong" it is definitely not the case that economies want their currencies to just be as "strong" as possible as you might think from the connotations of the word "strong".

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#213

Post by ctrlmeta »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #203

Not really surprising that there's a lack of confidence in the untested combination of reducing tax (for high earners) and increasing borrowing. At first glance, that would seem to be a recipe for high inflation.

It does seem like a recipe for high inflation. But I want to understand why they chose this combination? Why play such a big gamble? There has to be some logic behind making this choice. But what is it?

Were there other safer alternatives that they could have gone with? What could be the reasons for choosing this combination over those safer alternatives?

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#214

Post by snowwrestler »

bb123 wrote: post #194
LatteLazy wrote: post #193

The UK is a good example of how much damage you can do yourself (nationally) by just disregarding facts and reality for a few years. Our own biggest enemy is our massive arrogance.

I presume you're referring to Brexit, but this seems to be mostly a strong US dollar and energy crisis story. Europe is in a similar situation so I'm not sure what difference staying/leaving would have made.

Cracks me up that the argument now is “we’re in the same boat as Europe” when the argument for Brexit was that the EU was an anchor holding back Great Britain’s unique potential for greatness.

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#215

Post by LatteLazy »

robertlagrant wrote: post #205
LatteLazy wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brexit is example number one but there are 101 other examples (including our approach to energy and our approach to "solving" the energy crisis). The USD is strong, but that's only half the story here. Just look at EUR vs GBP since Brexit: down 20%. We're doing 20% worse than Europe, an economy with the same issues around energy as ours, plus no real decisive government and which just finished dealing with a debt cri…

> Just look at EUR vs GBP since Brexit: down 20%. We weren't on the Euro when we were in the EU.

I didn't say we were did I? Sorry if I am being obtuse, I meant that a pound buys 20% fewer euros today than it did back then...

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#216

Post by [deleted] »

photochemsyn wrote: post #210

It's worth noting that there was an apparent real opportunity to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict in April 2022, via diplomatic negotiations, but UK's Boris Johnson reportedly disrupted those talks by threatening to withdraw UK/US support for Zelensky if he proceeded with negotiations. If the war had been resolved and sanctions on Russian export of gas to Europe had been lifted, this would have lowered gas prices…

[deleted]

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#217

Post by robertlagrant »

LatteLazy wrote: post #215
robertlagrant wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just look at EUR vs GBP since Brexit: down 20%. We weren't on the Euro when we were in the EU.

I didn't say we were did I? Sorry if I am being obtuse, I meant that a pound buys 20% fewer euros today than it did back then...

Oh! But then how do you know what it would be if we'd stayed in?

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#218

Post by lm28469 »

chitowneats wrote: post #197
bb123 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I presume you're referring to Brexit, but this seems to be mostly a strong US dollar and energy crisis story. Europe is in a similar situation so I'm not sure what difference staying/leaving would have made.

It's funny how Trump and Brexit have become these catch-all bogeymen that every societal ill is reflexively attributed to.

If the government can't be blamed for results who can lol

Re: British pound hits record low against the dollar

#219

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

robertlagrant wrote: post #205
LatteLazy wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brexit is example number one but there are 101 other examples (including our approach to energy and our approach to "solving" the energy crisis). The USD is strong, but that's only half the story here. Just look at EUR vs GBP since Brexit: down 20%. We're doing 20% worse than Europe, an economy with the same issues around energy as ours, plus no real decisive government and which just finished dealing with a debt cri…

> Just look at EUR vs GBP since Brexit: down 20%. We weren't on the Euro when we were in the EU.

Um, if we were in the Euro, there would be no pound to euro rate to compare it with after Brexit! Think you may have misunderstood what was being said.
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