On 26/11/2008, David Cragg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > How come the pound is going down compared to the dollar and the Euro. If we > are all in it together then shouldn't all currencys slip. Let's hope they are > genius's at #s10/11 but I get the impression that they ain't. Let's hope they > don't Argentina us! >
This is all getting very off-topic, but many people think the pound has been significantly over-valued because of the over-dominance of financial services in the economy since Mrs Thatcher's city big bang in 1987. This has not been helped by government and Bank of England wanting an over-valued pound to bear down on inflation - one reason why our interest rates are often higher than elsewhere. What we have seen in recent weeks is a sensible re-alignment in currency values. It is not an Argentina style collapse, and while there will be some further movements up and down I doubt they will be that big. It will makes imports more expensive (perhaps discouraging some of the rampant consumerism that Steve dislikes) but exports cheaper. And while I like my imported goods and foreign holidays as much as anybody, a rebalancing of the economy away from financial services and imports is a good thing in the long term. So in a desperate attempt to bring it all back on topic, those Polish and Chinese made narrow-boats may now look a bit less attractive. -- Nigel Stanley
