In 1956, President Eisenhower wanted to put manners on the Brits during the Suez Crisis.
He didn’t send in the Marines to slap them about.
Instead, he banjaxed their currency, and it worked.
It was a humiliation for the country that was the centre of the first transglobal imperium.
Indeed, the United States of America had its origins in fighting the British and defeating them in the 18th century.
Two decades after Suez, the British government had to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ask for a bail-out loan.
The Brits asked for $3.9 billion (Dollars).
This was the largest amount the IMF had ever been asked for at the time.
That resulted from a Sterling crisis in the aftermath of the Barber Boom in 1972 and the oil crisis the following year.
Essentially the British state was being run on payday loans like Sevco.
The new regime in Whitehall is maxing out the credit card, and the financial world is paying attention.
That is why today, the Pound Sterling is tanking against the Rouble.
Yes, Putin’s Pound…
Dear, oh, dear.
Bulgaria too.
Unlike m 1956, this Sterling Crisis is entirely self-inflicted.
Therefore the comparisons with the Ibrox outfit are entirely apposite.
If you follow the money on this, it would appear that these Hedge Fund chaps in the Square Mile seem to have this all worked out.
If I put a character like Mr Odey in a novel, my book editor would probably send it back.
The chaos started last Friday.
As ever, the folks at Channel Four provided excellent coverage of the unfolding events.
It has continued today.
For the avoidance of doubt, these aren’t just lines on a graph that excite economics undergraduates.
A currency in freefall impacts real lives like cataclysmic historical events tend to.
Dear reader, if you have a heart, this story in the Guardian should make you weep.
Your humble correspondent was brought up in a household where the folk memory of food insecurity in that Lanarkshire mining community was very raw indeed.
The people currently in charge of the British state do not seem to have an issue with hungry children in their country.
That alone should damn them to a lifetime of shame.
Still, blue passports…
I have written before that Brexit would be a slow-moving Suez Crisis.
Indeed, everyone on the government front bench owes their position, in some way or other, to that vote in June 2016.
That is what history feels like.
The Bank of England just put this out.
I don’t need Rugger Guy to tell me that healthy economies do not see this sort of thing put out by their central bank.
They’re now the Sevco of Europe.
I thought it odd the IMF were getting spooked over a 2bill tax giveaway to the wealthy,however immoral it is.
Turns out they weren’t, they’re spooked over the pension funds being in a pickle.
I worrying thing is , financial institutions placing risky bets they can’t afford if they go wrong.
Whatever happened to the stress test that these institutions were able to withstand a financial shock. Well they’ve just had a shock and failed ,had to be bailed out by the boe .
Rest assured what’s going on in London is going on in Newyork, Paris and Frankfurt, while the media is ignoring the real story in their eagerness to blame the government
I voted for Brexit. I thought it would f#ck the country up good and push people in Scotland to independence as well as a united Ireland.
I thought it would be funny if the Conservative & Unionist party were the party to break up the union. Never did I think they would muck everything up so spectacularly.
I think the show is just getting to the good bit.
On the bright side , American tourist will be having cheap holidays
It’s trickling down right enough! HH
Any sane, rational minded Scot who still wants to cling to this union of unequals needs their head examined. Independence is Scotland’s only hope, it’s not a question of voting for the SNP, you can boot them out any time you like if they aren’t doing the job. Get rid of the Monarchy, become a republic, hell, even find a new way to govern… anything to cut ties with these psychopath’s in Westminster. There is a better world for Scotland, being lashed to the crazy neighbours isn’t it.!
But, But, Blue Passports!!!
Told you Phil… These things can go on for years then, BANG, economic and collapse
Now, the question in fair Caledonia should be, how will a business cope in the coming economic depression… Maybe like a football team who’s customers girls might stop when the IMF makes actual cuts.
Follow the international money fund
Inept politicians at Westminster, macabre masses queuing to stare at a royal coffin, children going hungry, elderly people without adequate heating, and the grovelling Ibrox Klan singing Rule Brut-ania. Insane nation.
Reckless beviour from No.10.
Just a continuation of Boris’ style of leadership then?
And all the consequences from the ‘non-budget’ were guaranteed.
On top of the cost of living crisis, mortgage payers will be paying higher monthly payments,
with further interest rate hikes inevitable.
If that is the best Truss can come up with, [and she is a qualified accountant 🙁 ],
then we should have just stuck with the twat we already knew!
A quallified accountant does not make you qualified to run the country,This is not the time for Capitalist economic trickery, every time I go into Asda the prices are up again.We are reaching the perfect time for revolution and radical action, those who think they are our masters may soon get a surprise lesson on what happens when you treat the poor this way
In an independent Scotland we wouldn’t have been lumbered with either of those useless Tories as Prime Minister because we wouldn’t have voted them in, Bob.
We could even have voted for our own properly socialist Labour Party if you don’t like the SNP.
The bottom line is that Scotland would get the government it votes for…every time.
An independent Scotland may have been still using the pound though. Plus having vaccine passports and extended lockdowns. The grass is not always greener. But at least it’d be by your own hand and you could change it much easier.