£ To The €

[P.K.]

Cambon believes what he reads in The Daily Mail! Unbelievably strange but true. Little wonder his tenuous grasp of the situation is a tad anti-Labour. I mean, claiming the MPC is under government control is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen posted. Had the Treasury had more sway over Mervyn and His Merry Men then things wouldn't have got so bad. Jeeeze... Are all Wail readers as misinformed????

And you only believe what you read in your "lefty" rags. Albert Tatlock is so correct when he says Labour have dumbed down society over the past decade or so. They really have!

As you can so obviously read my mind can I have Saturday's lottery numbers please? With your psychic powers they should be a doddle.

 

From the BBC:

As a nation, our fortunes in 2009 will be conspicuously tied to the fortunes of our banks as never before.

First, an economic recovery rests on the ability of banks to support viable businesses during what increasingly looks like a severe recession.

Second, and as important, the balance sheet of the British public sector can be seen as the aggregated balance sheet of some substantial banks - because the state now controls three banks, Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley and Royal Bank of Scotland, and will have a huge stake in a soon-to-be created fourth, LloydsTSB/HBOS.

It means that if the perceived credit-worthiness of our banks - with their trillions of pounds of assets and liabilities - were to deteriorate further, that would have an impact on the perceived credit-worthiness of the state.

 

As never before, it matters to all of us that the banks run themselves in a prudent way. In an extreme and highly unlikely case, if the markets viewed our banks as recklessly managed basket-cases, that would have an impact on the value of sterling and on the ability of the government itself to borrow.

So our prospects and welfare depend to a huge extent on an institution that was created a few weeks ago by the Treasury to manage its investments in the banks, UK Financial Investments (UKFI).

It's probably no exaggeration to say that - for the coming year or two at least - UKFI will be as important to all of us as the Treasury, or the Bank of England or the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority.

 

Sorry it's not that left wing and all that...

[Tweek]

As a nation, our fortunes in 2009 will be conspicuously tied to the fortunes of our banks as never before.

First, an economic recovery rests on the ability of banks to support viable businesses during what increasingly looks like a severe recession.

Eeeeeeeek!

[pongo]

it drop against the £, and the pound will rise, not a lot but be a better gap than it is at the moment, start of jan u will see movement in the euro

 

Always interesting to hear different points of view. What's your thinking on this - why the € will decline against sterling ? I'm not arguing, just curious.

 

Also - when you say "better" ... what do you mean by better?

[gazza]

it drop against the £, and the pound will rise, not a lot but be a better gap than it is at the moment, start of jan u will see movement in the euro

 

Always interesting to hear different points of view. What's your thinking on this - why the € will decline against sterling ? I'm not arguing, just curious.

 

Also - when you say "better" ... what do you mean by better?

 

u know i cant explain my thinking, think its called a hunch, just with everything i seen read and watched, i just can see the £ leveling up and riseing, and the euro dropping, how much is beyond me, but time will tell, i preety much expect it to be 1-1 b4 the gap widens again,

 

its like the down turn, you could see it happing in march april that the whole thing was going to go belly up,

 

 

well by better it all depends on your stuiation your in,

for some it will be better for others it will be worse,

for the public i would say its bad the euro being stronger as expect from now till end of jan the price of all goods brought go up,

your price of foods going to go up a lot, as 70% is imported into the uk your cars etc etc,

but on the other hand if it stays stable it could open up a few more companys in the uk that make things,

the export market will be booming if it stays like this, (which its starting to)

im quite happy that its this price to be honest as the price of export has gone up, which means more cash more sales,

but in markets and in life, wheres theres gd there is allways bad, some will do well some wont

[pongo]

You could be right. Parity started to seem inevitable because it was a shocking possibility - and that quickly became almost self fulfilling. Personally I would guess that sterling vs € will over-shoot parity for a while. But perhaps already the oomph has gone out of the €.

 

So much is based on sentiment. So I think that there really is a lot to be said for a hunch. After all - that's more or less how the markets go.

 

Either way I don't think it's as dramatic or as exciting as the news might make us think it is. It's just another thing. 20c either way really isn't so much.

[The Old Git]

i just can see the £ leveling up and riseing, and the euro dropping,

 

One of the papers I was reading yesterday reckoned the euro had some way to fall. Something to do with the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_(economics) ) being in a bad way and the "one size fits all" economics of the euro not really helping them

[bluemonday]

Don't panic Mister Mainwaring

[Mission]

your price of foods going to go up a lot, as 70% is imported into the uk

 

Erm, Isn't the UK 60% self sufficient in this respect these days?

[P.K.]

The Treasury has been forced to consider a second bailout for banks as the lending drought worsens.

 

The Chancellor will decide within weeks whether to pump billions more into the economy as evidence mounts that the £37 billion part-nationalisation last year has failed to keep credit flowing.

Not exactly "news" though is it? I'm sure that not a day has gone by without Darling and his mates wondering how they can get credit flowing again especially from the "non-nationalised" financial institutions. Because the likes of Barclays have a first call to their shareholders and in these austere times "risk" is not a word those shareholders want to hear.

[gazza]

your price of foods going to go up a lot, as 70% is imported into the uk

 

Erm, Isn't the UK 60% self sufficient in this respect these days?

 

ok i was wrong, its about 50-60% imported from what i just looked up, i thought it was 70% but i was wrong

[Mission]

DEFRA doesn't agree with you from what I've read. Under the 1998 methadology for calculation, it's 60.6% (all food) and 74% (indigenous food types) (provisional 2007 figures).

 

They could of course, be telling fibs I guess...

[Sebrof]

The Treasury has been forced to consider a second bailout for banks as the lending drought worsens.

 

The Chancellor will decide within weeks whether to pump billions more into the economy as evidence mounts that the £37 billion part-nationalisation last year has failed to keep credit flowing.

Not exactly "news" though is it? I'm sure that not a day has gone by without Darling and his mates wondering how they can get credit flowing again especially from the "non-nationalised" financial institutions. Because the likes of Barclays have a first call to their shareholders and in these austere times "risk" is not a word those shareholders want to hear.

 

 

If the silly idiot wasn't demanding rapid repayment and charging punitive interest rates the banks might have some money to lend. The sooner he converts these loans into equity the better.

 

S

[gazza]

DEFRA doesn't agree with you from what I've read. Under the 1998 methadology for calculation, it's 60.6% (all food) and 74% (indigenous food types) (provisional 2007 figures).

 

They could of course, be telling fibs I guess...

 

thay could well be, but who knows, ok i meet in the middle if we say 50% we both cant be far off,

[gazza]

i see the euro has started falling and the £ gaining,!!!!!