Like F1 “fans” waiting for a car crash, international investors are watching to see who loses its AAA credit rating first – the United Kingdom or United States. Both countries have huge budget deficits and high debt: so which will be stripped of its top rating, or will both be downgraded?
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Does the bank of England have a secret policy to devalue the pound? It’s being highly successful if it has.
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Japan’s Nikkei stockmarket benchmark finished January six points lower, at 7,994, than the Dow Jones index of US share prices. Is it just numbers of it this inversion telling us something?
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The UK is suffering from global problems, the government constantly says. Well in that case, how come Britain has a record trade deficit and a falling currency?
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For the generation of businessmen who have never known a recession it may seem academic that this one is so different from others. But it matters for those hoping to use past experience to cope with this downturn.
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Nevermind whether comments from Conservative shadow chancellor George Osborne can move sterling, who is in charge of looking after Britain’s currency? When the Bank of England was made independent, managing the exchange rate fell through the cracks.
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As if we didn’t have enough of a financial collapse, the UK is also facing that regular curse of the past – a sterling crisis.
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What on earth were people thinking of when they put their savings in an Icelandic bank? What on earth is the chancellor doing baling-out those savers?
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The banking crisis has reached a healthy phase: it is now safe to let a bank go bust. Until now the state has feared one insolvency would cause others.
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Having demanded a stamp duty holiday, the housing industry ungratefully dismissed the one-year suspension as insignificant. But it’s not the start of the holiday that will make people buy, it will be the end.
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