It's official, my scratches are now officially bleeding lol. When will it end? It is dropping every single day for the past 2 weeks. Thank you Labour, thank you very much. You have devalued Sterling with your attempts to fight a recession, and such attempts are futile, as they are doing more damage than good (increasing the cost of goods thanks to the exchange rate means now realy VAT savings anyway).

Prevention is the best line of defence, I think someone needs to remind them of that fact.

BBC News Report

Been watching this myself as Im wanting to buy some stuff from the states....

I hope it picks up again after Christmas - things from the US used to be 25% cheaper 6 months ago

Ahhhh but do you see what the government has done Stuy? They have increased the tax-free level on imported goods from £17 to £100; but they have done it at a time when it becomes uneconomical to import goods anyway.

Just the same as they introduce the best jobless policies in the history of this Labour government, at the same time as they see job numbers reducing by hundreds each days.

And now they reduce VAT on goods, which in turn weakens our currency and in turn causes goods in general to increase in price anyway.

Funny isnt it, with all this spin, anyone would think these decisions by Labour are great news. Dig a bit though, and you realise they are of no benefit to anyone...

...too little too late

UK =































exactly nothing.

Lmao Lee, its so true!!

It will always be low, and get lower, as soon as money gets pumped in to the system (new money that is) it lowers the origional value of any real money, oh and even if your out of dept, your still in dept and all money is owed back to the bank btw.

It won't always be low mate, it depends on the economical wellbeing of each economy.

If for instance, Germany took a hammering, and the UK started to rebuild itself, it would weaken the EURO and stregnthen the GBP, which would, in turn increase the exchange rate favourably. The problem in the UK atm, is deflation, th government is trying to fight it by increasing inflation, but all it is doing, is leading to an unstable economy.

Atm, the Labour government have totally screwed our economy. It may be year's before we recover however.

its the banks that have screwed our ecomomy matt, dont be so quick to blame the goverment, well when i say the banks, I mean the bank of england, its calling in all of its depts from other banks it has lent money too. thus why there is a shit trail on its way,

When a bank lends money, which is how any one gets it, as it belongs to the bank in the first place it will always want it back with interest. If this is the case more money is owed in than there is out there, so new money must be made thus lowering the value of any real money out there in the first place.

Were does money come from ?????

the goverment sell the bank of england bonds, and in return the bank give's the government money. the goverment put that money in their own banks for us to lend.

the world bank, federal bank (not that its very federal) etc etc etc they all do it this way.

Remind me, who de-regulated the banking system, and more importantly, the bank of England?

The government.

And I HATE people who solely blame the banks, the consumers are as much to blame (they were the muppets who spent spent spent on credit, and could not control their own finances, believing tomorrow would never come), and at the end of the day, the government is responsible for controlling the whole economy.

Anyone who tells me that our "amazing and greatest" chancellor, is innocent in all this, that he never had a clue this was going to happen, when even myself and BMW Joe, with little/no financial background or training, were warning of a financial crash/recession on here, over 2 years ago, is quite frankly, either a gullable git, or chatting shit.

Don't be so fast to blame the banks mate, as much as we hate them, they arnt the only ones who are in the wrong, its EVERYONE involved, who is to blame.

Oh, and its the governments current wreckless VAT drop, alongside other stupid recession-prevention measures, trying to fight deflation that is already on full steam ahead, that is devaluing the pound against all other world economies.

As Stuy said, its too little, too late, prevention is the best form of defence, and our government did'nt have the balls to admit that the boom was always going to turn to bust, and now we have hit that bust, and its simply too late to avoid a brick wall, when you have alreadt smashed into it.

mathew my chum of many years, the banks control every thing, goverments are but the puppets on the end of their strings, they are corrupted and bribed tin to running the contry the wat it is, here.... check this link bud, wirht a watch....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912

The girlfriends uncle is over at Chrimbo from Canada, hes in for a shock when he changes his currency!!!
No wonder half my family n friends have fooked off to Oz!!
If i didnt have the business i would too!!!

I tend not to take much notice of video's on Google and Youtube im afraid, because if we did, we would all blame AIDS on the American's trying to kill off blacks in Africa, and 911 on the US government bombing the twin-towers etc...

Im afraid, as much as you, and everyone else, likes to make the banks out to be the criminal's, it is is utimately the consumer and the regulators. The governent de-regulated the BOE, not me, and certainly not the HSBC/Barclays/RBS etc... They did this to allow for a boom, but never considered the consequences.

The consumers went out and spent spent spent, living out the nice dream that New Labour portrayed, in which everyone, could have everything they wanted, without having to actually afford it.

It's true, that banks have made a LOT of mistakes in recent years, with regards policy and lack of ethics etc (sub-prime lending being the worst of the bunch), some more than others (hence NR and HBOS being is such shit, whilst HSBC and Chartered Standard are pretty much business as usual), and they are in the market to make a profit and have little care or consideration for how they do that.

But to blame the banks solely for the demise of our economy is quite stupid in all honesty. I have been watching things myself, with some interest, on television however. Whilst I still take these types of things with a pinch of salt, almost all the channels (BBC, unbiased, Channel 4, pretty much unbiased) admit that consumers spending on credit and not worrying for one second how they can afford to pay it, is a major factor in the credit crunch, as is the government's non-regulation of UK banks, alongside the bank's own failings.

And regardless of all this shite, the decisions made by the government in the past few weeks, are the reason Sterling is being devalued today, and yesterday, its artificial inflation and it only ever ends up one way. To say the banks have caused that mate, is nonsense, and this is the issue in the thread.

The UK is on its way down, and everyone is paying for it, INCLUDING the banks and their shareholders (try telling a shareholder of a bank, who's share price was 700p last year, and is worth 40p atm that they are still rolling in it), the only major UK bank that is seen as "safe" right now due to their very correct more assets-than loans policy, and this includes Barclays, is the HSBC, and even their share price is being hit by the Household sub-prime fiasco that is taking place in the US.

I am not immune, as my business is being hit hard by the demise of Sterling, because I deal in EUR and USD primarly, and I am also not innocent, because I quite happily took a credit card off my bank and bought some nice things on it. The difference being, I can afford the repayments very easily, even with my business dwindling, and am prepared to make cutbacks as and when I need to. Anyone, who has ever bought anything on credit, is not innocent, because it all adds up. However, those who will not touch credit, I really feel sorry for, because they have played no part in all of this, but have to suffer the consequences of the credit crunch as much as the rest of us when it comes to everyday things like the cost of shopping and commodities etc...

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on it:

Myself - the government, banks and consumers are responsible for the credit crunch/recession.

You - the banks are responsible for the credit crunch/recession, the consumers never spent the credit, and the government regulated just fine, so must shoulder no blame.

My mum and her mate went to California the other day, and her mate was gutted to find that the exchange rate meant that Xmas shopping wasnt up to much over there. They have been practically every year for the past 10 years and she always buys her Xmas shopping out there haha!

Matt, that was a very nice reply but if you dont get your info from the net etc etc, were do you get it from, the controlled media ?

Within reason, yes, but I also gain information from a wide range of sources including actual stock markets (im not a stock whizz kid, but I take an intrest), from internet discussion forums, and from the controlled media, but this includes the likes of the BBC and Channel 4, both of whom are the most unbiased of the lot. Most of it tbh, is common sense, you can't blame a bank for trying to make a profit, you can blame them for lending irresponsibly, but then you can also question the consumers responsibility in all this shite, when they are defaulting on their mortgages etc, because they had a dream of owning everything and never wanted to work for it/worked out if they could afford it, but ultimately the government, as they can regulate it all.

Lets take a look at the FSA, the government set this authority up to regulate the banks, but hold on, the government went to the banks and asked them to fund it; how are they ever going to be independent if this happens? If the government had spent public money on making the FSA a government run and independent authority, diverted some of the money away from bag heads and immigrants, and passed legislationg protecting the economy from things such as sub-prime lending etc, and stopped assuring everyone that the boom would never turn to bust, thus encouraging people to spend spend spend instead of save, half of this crap would never have even happened.

But its always good to have the benefit of hindsight I guess?

very true bud, do you think that tha fsa was set up by the bank from the start though ?

So, is now is not the best time to exchange my hard earned sterling for some Euros then? Going to disney paris in May and was going to get some Euros for the kids for xmas, (just a small amount as a novelty thing)

May be best to wait and see, its all a waiting game. I know of a dude who has been waiting a long time for this to happen, he bought I think in the the region of £3000 worth of dollars when they were at like $1.96 to the pound.

He will be cashing them in soon id imagine...

There is another person I know of who does this. Both of them are off WHT ad have money to waste, but its esssentially savings and they have invested it wisely, looking at it now.

I wish i had the power of fore sight now lol, like you say matty xxx

Gutted

BBC News Report

this is were the euro steps in, there is too much sterling in the ecomomy, a new money must be made, just llike gold was replaced back in 18th century.

All pounds will be demanded in, the euro is here to stay.

The official exchange rate showed that the pound lost another 2.47 per cent of its value to take it down to €1.082. However, most bureaux de change on the high street and in airports are offering holidaymakers less than €1 for every £1.

A year ago travellers could have enjoyed a rate of €1.40. The fall in sterling means that everything from a simple cup of coffee to a hotel room has become much more expensive.

A €2 cappuccino in a restaurant in Rome, now costs £2, compared with £1.43 last Christmas.

The new low came as a fresh set of economic data persuaded international investors to abandon the pound.

Crucially, minutes from Bank of England showed its Monetary Policy Committee – in charge of setting interest rates – considered a bigger interest rate cut than the one per cent delivered two weeks ago.

Members only held back for fear of an 'excessive' knock to the pound and confidence in the economy.

Economists said it was now increasingly likely that the Bank will follow its counterpart in the United States and cut to zero.

Higher jobless figures have also encouraged many investors to sell sterling, thus forcing its price downward.

"Rising unemployment shows the soft underbelly of the UK economy, and pound weakness is set to continue for some time," said Paul Robson, strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland.