Showing posts with label European Central Bank. Show all posts
Showing posts with label European Central Bank. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 September 2009


Sorry, Ma’am! It’s Time for Us to Accept the Euro

Successive governments, along with the Bank of England, have shown that they are quite incapeable of taking good care of our currency. They’re obviuosly unable to maintain its value. Now, it seems, that dear Merve doesn’t even hide the fact! He wants a weak currency in order to “rebalance the nation’s economy”. What the hell does “rebalance the nation’s economy” mean anyway? It means nothing! These people are just trying to baffle us! What a load of bulldust it is! If these people had balanced the nation’s economy in the first place, they wouldn’t have to try and rebalance it now!

And what’s all this nonsense about quantitative easing? That’s a euphemism for printing money. History tells us where that leads to! It leads to hyperinflation.

It seems to me that neither the government nor the Bank of England are serious about maintaining a stable and valuable pound. People at the top of the banking sector don’t need to care about the pound’s falling value. All they have to do is award themselves hefty bonuses to make up for the lost value of their savings and salaries. For less privileged folk, this is not, alas, a possibility. So, with the pound falling dramatically in value and interest rates remaining very low, and likely to do so for quite some time to come, the people who are becoming poorer and poorer are ordinary folk, i.e. people who do not work in banks! Therefore, perhaps sadly, it is time to get rid of the pound and place our currency into good, safe hands – into the hands of the European Central Bank (ECB).

I, for one, am looking forward to the day when we shall have a stable and desirable currency. The euro must surely be the currency of the future of all European nations. It must surely also be the currency for the future of the United Kingdom, too. So let’s adopt it before we’ll be forced to do so by circumstances beyond our control. By that time the pound sterling may have have become next to worthless. – © Mark

Sterling Slides After BoE Chief Mervyn King Backs a Weak Pound

THE TELEGRAPH: Sterling fell to its weakest against the euro in more than 5½ months, pressured after Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said a weak domestic currency was helping to rebalance the nation's economy.

The UK currency also hit a near 2½-month low versus the dollar, stung by Mr King's comment to a regional UK newspaper that sterling's fall "will be helpful" to rebalance the UK economy to one focused more on exports.

While the comments reiterated the central bank's long-held view on the currency and the economy, analysts said the market considered his remarks a good opportunity to wipe out sterling's gains made the previous day.

Sterling had rallied on Wednesday after minutes from the BoE's policy meeting earlier this month showed a unanimous vote not to extend quantitative easing in September.

Market participants said those gains had been overdone, and some analysts said that even though King's comments on Thursday did not offer new insight into the BoE's position on sterling, his statement helped to revive momentum to dump the pound.

"When the market's down on a currency, it will jump on anything that justifies selling it," said Stuart Bennett, currency strategist at Calyon in London.

"Sterling is certainly the whipping boy at the moment."

The euro climbed roughly 1.5pc on the day to 91.53p, its highest since early April. Daily trade volumes surged on the move, with the number of trades executed on the Reuters Dealing system hitting its highest in at least three months.

Thursday's move put the euro on course to posting its best daily performance against the pound since late April. >>> Reuters | Thursday, September 24, 2009

Bank Calls Unprecedented Meeting of Economists

THE TELEGRAPH: The Bank of England has summoned the City's leading economists to an unprecedented meeting in Threadneedle Street, as the pound plunges amid growing confusion over its radical Quantitative Easing (QE) policy.

The Bank will host a seminar of all London's major economists next Tuesday – the first time it has invited them in en masse in recent memory – in what has been construed as a sign that it fears market participants are starting to lose faith in its efforts to pump cash into the economy. The move has also sparked speculation that it is poised to announce a major change to the monetary policy framework, although insiders dismissed such suggestions.

It came after the minutes from the Bank's latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting revealed that the idea of cutting the interest rate banks are paid on the reserves they hold there was not discussed this month. The pound has lurched lower in recent weeks, thanks in part to speculation that the Bank will impose charges on banks for holding excessive amounts of cash in reserve at its vaults. Under QE, it is pumping £175bn into the economy, but much of this cash is sitting in banks' reserve accounts rather than being recycled and flowing around the broader economy.

The suspicion that the Bank will soon take action to mitigate this has pushed down market interest rates sharply and contributed to an almost 5pc fall in the pound against other leading currencies. It has caused gilt prices and short-term interest rates to fluctuate wildly in recent weeks. >>> Edmund Conway and Angela Monaghan | Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Quantitative easing >>>

It’s Time to Adopt the Euro >>> Mark Alexander | Saturday, September 19, 2009

Thursday, 8 January 2009

ECB Deems Britain Unworthy of Euro

THE TELEGRAPH: The European Central Bank has deemed Britain unfit for monetary union even if it wants to join following the dramatic slide in sterling and the explosion in the UK budget deficit.

"Great Britain does not meet the entry criteria for the euro," said Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, the ECB's board member in charge of international affairs.

"The public deficit will rise to around 6pc (of GDP) in 2009 and even higher in 2010. Sterling's exchange rate is not yet sufficiently stable," he told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper.

The entry rules impose a deficit ceiling of 3pc of GDP, two years of currency stability, and a public debt limit of 60pc of GDP. The rules were waived for political reasons to let Italy, Belgium and Greece into EMU, but terms are becoming stricter as the ECB seeks to exclude East European states before they are ready.

If anything, Mr Bini Smaghi may have been too kind to Britain. The Treasury expects the deficit to reach £118bn in the 2009 tax year - almost 8pc of GDP - but there are now fears that this will rise even higher as tax revenues collapse. Some analysts have begun to warn that Britain will soon face a deficit of 10pc, the sort of catastrophic levels seen in Latin America in the 1980s. >>> By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Thursday, 18 September 2008

The Fed Injects $180bn into Markets

THE TELEGRAPH: The Federal Reserve has spearheaded the pumping of hundreds of billions of dollars into financial markets as central banks battle the deepening credit crisis.

The co-ordinated move by central banks including the Bank of England and the European Central Bank is designed to unfreeze lending in dollars, which has collapsed since the demise of Lehman Brothers.

At the moment, banks are having to pay the most since 1999 to borrow dollars for three months on fears another lender will fail. Federal Reserve Spearheads $180bn Injection into Markets >>> By Telegraph Staff | September 18, 2008

WELT ONLINE:
Finanzkrise: Angst beherrscht Börsen – Anleger flüchten in Gold: Börsen krachen zusammen oder lassen ihre Türen gleich ganz geschlossen, milliardenschwere Banken werden zu Spottpreisen übernommen oder verstaatlicht. Das Ausmaß der Finanzkrise ist noch nicht abzusehen, aber die Schockwellen sind längst bei uns angekommen. Und Gold ist wieder ein großes Thema. >>> 18. September 2008

WELT ONLINE:
Analyse: Märkte in der verheerenden Abwärtsspirale: An den Märkten herrscht Panik, Rettungsaktionen des Staates verpuffen. Selbst gesunde Banken drohen umzukippen. Wenn sich die Stimmung nicht dreht, wächst die Gefahr einer Weltwirtschaftskrise. Es bleibt gerade nur ein Trost: Politiker und Notenbanker haben den Ernst der Lage erkannt. >>> Von Jörg Eigendorf | 18. September 2008

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL:
US Financial Crisis: 'The World As We Know It Is Going Under': Panic is the word of the hour on Wall Street. Now even Morgan Stanley is fighting for survival. The commercial bank Wachovia and China's Bank Citic are being discussed as possible rescuers. The crisis has led President Bush to cancel a trip. >>> By Marc Pitzke in New York | September 18, 2008

BBC:
Central Bank Moves Cheer Markets: Markets regained some poise in Thursday trading, cheered by news that six of the world's top central banks have taken steps to calm credit markets.

The banks will release $180bn (£99bn) to lift the amount of credit available.
>>>
| September 18, 2008

THE TELEGRAPH:
Credit Crisis Affects Wives: For Richer, for Poorer?: The domestic repercussions of the financial crisis have already hit home. Just ask the City wives >>> By Judith Woods | September 17, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>