The British Pound getting KILLED!

[Mega]

Merv, the Guv of the Bank of England spoke on TV tonight...............he said the "R" word (He was thinking the "D" word). The Pound which was $1.77 a few days ago hit $1.66 in mins.

The World is in shock, but once it gets a grip it will see that After Iceland Britian is heading into a black hole!

(Nasty Limey Bastards Ho Ho Ho)
Mike

[hayekvindicated]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

Made a tidy sum today on my short position on Sterling - and more to come on that. As Im leveraged (and have been for this trade right through), this drop in the value of the Pound more than offsets the losses on my Sterling savings.

But Im close to hitting panic stations now. I need to get my cash out of the country. We may not be far away from a collapse of the currency and exchange controls by the British Government. Were that to happen, anyone with sizeable savings in Sterling in UK bank accounts would be well and truly stuffed. Its not a situation I'd like to find myself in - particularly when I've seen it coming for some time.

The problem is finding banks and jurisdictions which are not going to be caught up in all this. My best bet right now is Singapore - but I just don't know if I'd be able to open a S'pore bank account sitting in London. Any suggestions here would be greatly appreciated.

[Mega]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

Here's "Merv":-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...al-crisis.html
Mike

[Guest]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

When do I get to buy my nice Bayswater top floor flat back for a song? Now? ... How about now? ... Or now, what about now. Is it cheap yet? Maybe now?? ... I have a severe case of "LONDON-ENVY". Plus I want my 250cc two stroke 1978 Suzuki back again - the one with the worn out treadless tires, that I dropped about a dozen times on London's rain-slicked streets across the span of five years. Never had so much fun dropping motorcycles on the streets of any other city in my life. Argh! Gimme my 1980 London back! Grungy King's Road. Get out of it you Brits, go somplace else, or just get lost or something. It's mine! All miiiiyyynnee! I want to see the GBP go through the floor and into the basement so I can buy a posh flat there again. :rolleyes:

[hayekvindicated]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

The Euro also got killed by the way. So Sterling isn't the only lousy currency around right now.

[hayekvindicated]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

When do I get to buy my nice Bayswater top floor flat back for a song? Now? ... How about now? ... Or now, what about now. Is it cheap yet? Maybe now?? ... I have a severe case of "LONDON-ENVY". Plus I want my 250cc two stroke 1978 Suzuki back again - the one with the worn out treadless tires, that I dropped about a dozen times on London's rain-slicked streets across the span of five years. Never had so much fun dropping motorcycles on the streets of any other city in my life. Argh! Gimme my 1980 London back! Grungy King's Road. Get out of it you Brits, go somplace else, or just get lost or something. It's mine! All miiiiyyynnee! I want to see the GBP go through the floor and into the basement so I can buy a posh flat there again. :rolleyes:

I can't believe you'd want to live in "sunny" London when you're living in San Diego! or am I living in the past when I think of San Diego? In London you get 40 hours of sunshine in a decade and you want to move here?

I can swap places any time (unfortunately I don't have a flat in Bayswater - actually don't own any property anywhere in the UK thankfully; and also unfortunately don't have a 1978 Suzuki two stroke motorbike - I did have a Yamaha two stroke in India as a college student and it was a hell of a lot more fun in crazy Indian traffic than you'd ever have on grubby London roads I'll tell you!).

[Chomsky]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

I can't believe you'd want to live in "sunny" London when you're living in San Diego! or am I living in the past when I think of San Diego? In London you get 40 hours of Sunshine in a decade and you want to move here? ]

London's got history, art, culture. San Diego's got....?

[GRG55]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

The Euro also got killed by the way. So Sterling isn't the only lousy currency around right now.

And those who are advocates of the Swiss Franc should be aware that the Swissie has gone from par with the US $ in March this year to about a 15% discount today, and is down more than 17% against the lowly Yen in just 3 months.

[photoncounter]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

The problem is finding banks and jurisdictions which are not going to be caught up in all this. My best bet right now is Singapore - but I just don't know if I'd be able to open a S'pore bank account sitting in London. Any suggestions here would be greatly appreciated.

Some of your posts indicate that you are an Indian. If you don't mind asking, I am wondering why you are not converting your pounds into Rs. If you have done any research as to why it is not a good idea to convert any currency into Rs and have your reasons, do you mind posting ? I would really appreciate. I have been wanting to do this research by I haven't found the time to do it. I know that the Debt/GDP is increasing, trade deficit is rising, dollar reserves are falling, but i am not sure what to make of it. I sure don't feel if it is on the path to bankruptcy/default, but I am not an expert.

I have been converting USD into Rs (NRI account) and then buying PM's in India (I do not intend to convert these into USD again). The bank also has a branch in USA. I understand that I cannot transfer funds once capital control is implemented, but, can they impose penalty on the money that is already transferred. Further, can they make me pay taxes on the PM's that I bought with this money ? I don't think that seems likely, but crazy things have been happening, so just want to confirm.

Thanks in advance.

[GRG55]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

London's got history, art, culture. San Diego's got....?

The del Coronado with its Prince of Wales restaurant [see, not everything Victorian is in Blighty ;)], nicer weather, Navy aircraft...

...And Lukester.

'Nuff said.

[GRG55]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

When do I get to buy my nice Bayswater top floor flat back for a song? Now? ... How about now? ... Or now, what about now. Is it cheap yet? Maybe now?? ... I have a severe case of "LONDON-ENVY". Plus I want my 250cc two stroke 1978 Suzuki back again - the one with the worn out treadless tires, that I dropped about a dozen times on London's rain-slicked streets across the span of five years. Never had so much fun dropping motorcycles on the streets of any other city in my life. Argh! Gimme my 1980 London back! Grungy King's Road. Get out of it you Brits, go somplace else, or just get lost or something. It's mine! All miiiiyyynnee! I want to see the GBP go through the floor and into the basement so I can buy a posh flat there again. :rolleyes:

Some people will do anything to avoid getting ripped off by a London cabbie.

Lukester; you don't want to know what it costs to ride that rickety old Tube today. :eek:

But I'm with you on the apartment thing. Mine was just off the Church Street near the Notting Hill tube station.

[Rajiv]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

I have been converting USD into Rs (NRI account) and then buying PM's in India (I do not intend to convert these into USD again).
Thanks in advance.

Good time to do that -- I don't think you will regret it

[Redwoods]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chomsky
London's got history, art, culture. San Diego's got....?
-------------------------------------------------------------

Correct.
We call it Bland Diego.

[hayekvindicated]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

Some of your posts indicate that you are an Indian. If you don't mind asking, I am wondering why you are not converting your pounds into Rs. If you have done any research as to why it is not a good idea to convert any currency into Rs and have your reasons, do you mind posting ? I would really appreciate. I have been wanting to do this research by I haven't found the time to do it. I know that the Debt/GDP is increasing, trade deficit is rising, dollar reserves is falling, but i am not sure what to make of it. I sure don't feel if it is on the path to bankruptcy/default, but I am not an expert.

I have been converting USD into Rs (NRI account) and then buying PM's in India (I do not intend to convert these into USD again). The bank also has a branch in USA. I understand that I cannot transfer funds once capital control is implemented, but, can they impose penalty on the money that is already transferred. Further, can they make me pay taxes on the PM's that I bought with this money ? I don't think that seems likely, but crazy things have been happening, so just want to confirm.

Thanks in advance.

I am Indian.

I like being diversified. I have significant investments in India already - so don't want to put all my eggs in the same basket. Also, I have a distaste for the current Indian Government. Indian politics always produces its fair share of fools and clowns but this government is overloaded with them. Every time Chidambaram has been finance minister its been a disaster. I want to see a change in government to the right of centre policies like those of Vajpayee.

Also, the debt is too large for a third world country. I do believe though that the debt will be managed eventually and we won't get an Argentina type currency crisis (but this is based on gut feeling rather than hard analysis). But the country desperately needs a change in leadership. Fortunately elections are coming up next year and that promises change. So fingers crossed.

But yes if you want to hoard some of your cash in a forex bank account with an international bank in India, I don't think that is going to be unsafe. However, as I already have plenty of money ploughed into India, I don't want to put more there. Also, the rupee is not freely convertible so I don't want my cash in Rupees.

[hayekvindicated]

Re: The British Pound getting KILLED!

Some of your posts indicate that you are an Indian. If you don't mind asking, I am wondering why you are not converting your pounds into Rs. If you have done any research as to why it is not a good idea to convert any currency into Rs and have your reasons, do you mind posting ? I would really appreciate. I have been wanting to do this research by I haven't found the time to do it. I know that the Debt/GDP is increasing, trade deficit is rising, dollar reserves is falling, but i am not sure what to make of it. I sure don't feel if it is on the path to bankruptcy/default, but I am not an expert.

I have been converting USD into Rs (NRI account) and then buying PM's in India (I do not intend to convert these into USD again). The bank also has a branch in USA. I understand that I cannot transfer funds once capital control is implemented, but, can they impose penalty on the money that is already transferred. Further, can they make me pay taxes on the PM's that I bought with this money ? I don't think that seems likely, but crazy things have been happening, so just want to confirm.

Thanks in advance.

Don't know much about taxes on precious metals. But do people in India pay taxes anyway? ;)