The value of the pound

Irish_Tom said:
It was a rhetorical question. You have just spent the last however-many posts making the case that anyone with assets in GBP is now poorer, so it’s not a completely illogical conclusion to come to.
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Probably, yes. It is rather a straightforward point but I keep on getting quoted with silly arguments in relation to it...

You have gone so far out of your way to explain that, not only has JRM not profited from Brexit, his total investments are now likely net-negative due to the fall in the value of the pound.
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They might well be, his and his wife's illiquid property assets for example, like I've pointed out already you don't know what holdings he has in terms of his illiquid asserts or where he's allocated them. Its the argument that he's profited from Brexit that I'm taking issue with as it is apparently simply based on him making some unspecified amount of money from (likely) investments in EM funds and receiving some dividends from the fund he has a stake in plenty of which isn't necessarily attributable to Brexit!

In which case there must be some other reason/reasons for his initial and continued support and facilitation of Brexit.
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You do realise he's a politician? (that was a rhetorical question too btw...)

Again not every politician is going to hold views you agree with, it doesn't imply there is some conspiracy or hidden motive because they don't hold, in your eyes, the correct view.

It’s not as though the current volatility was entirely unpredictable was it?
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Some volatility after the vote was perhaps to be expected, but if you think you can make financial forecasts beyond that which is priced in then go ahead and become a billionaire... it isn't like you're the only person in the world to have noticed that Brexit was possibly going to happen.

And yes, you could argue that any political issue isn’t in the countries best interests if you disagree with it. However, there are very few single-issue policies that have such wide ranging and potentially damaging ramifications as Brexit, especially a no-deal Brexit which it appears we’re going to get thanks to JRM and chums.
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Cool, go moan about it in the Brexit containment thread then...
 
Raymond Lin said:
How do you think we are going to be cheaper with our minimum wage laws?
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I have no idea. It's not my job to manage the value of the pound. I'm sure JRM would love to scrap wage laws and go back to sweatshops. I suspect Corbyn would borrow and spend to stimulate investment. Trump would advise us to forget globalisation and go protectionist. Ask the politicians.
 
Greebo said:
So there only way we will compete on things like that is if while we are waiting for Chinese wages to catch up, we freeze UK wages for the next 20 years. Of course our economy then crashes as everybody has less and less disposable income each year.
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I suspect that, if China catches up on wages, there are lots of other places still cheaper than us. Africa, South and Cental America, for example. It's going to be a long wait if that's all we do.
 
200sols said:
It significantly distorts the Scottish figure compared to the UK as a whole. UK figure minus oil and gas = £31600 Scottish figure = £29800.

Worth a read... https://fraserofallander.org/scotti...nce-of-oil-and-are-scots-actually-better-off/
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Okay the. Even if it’s ignored and scotttish gdp per capita is behind England it’s not by much and the U.K. is the 6th biggest economy in the world so that should still put Scotland up there with a lot of other countries. Plus you can’t ignore the oil and gas as some of that will have to go with Scotland on independence
 
Greebo said:
Okay the. Even if it’s ignored and scotttish gdp per capita is behind England it’s not by much and the U.K. is the 6th biggest economy in the world so that should still put Scotland up there with a lot of other countries. Plus you can’t ignore the oil and gas as some of that will have to go with Scotland on independence
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They would still be a rich country of course - providing they get a free trade agreement with the rest of the UK that doesn't impede the flow of goods and I think that presents an issue if they wish to be inside the EU and we are outside.
 
We've just returned from a two week holiday in spain. Had some euros changed just before we went. Didn't spend much, but it was just as expensive as over here.

Think 260 euros was about £250. Can of coke around 80c to 1 euro.

Luckily we went all inclusive (with kids, great idea). We did venture out a few times and I remember in one cafe on the seafront charged 15 euros for a coffee and 3 giant posh icecreams. So maybe slightly more expensive than here.
 
200sols said:
They would still be a rich country of course - providing they get a free trade agreement with the rest of the UK that doesn't impede the flow of goods and I think that presents an issue if they wish to be inside the EU and we are outside.
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Which contradicts Roar's claim that Scotland would have no money.
 
once the taxman takes his cut we are already at parity :(

whilst i doubt we will get back to the heady heights of what... 5 years ago? when it was 1.6-1.7$, I do hope we get back to the 1.4$-1.5$ but maybe that is hoping for too much.
 
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TheOracle said:
We've just returned from a two week holiday in spain. Had some euros changed just before we went. Didn't spend much, but it was just as expensive as over here.

Think 260 euros was about £250. Can of coke around 80c to 1 euro.

Luckily we went all inclusive (with kids, great idea). We did venture out a few times and I remember in one cafe on the seafront charged 15 euros for a coffee and 3 giant posh icecreams. So maybe slightly more expensive than here.
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The thing is, people say, “We were in Paris/Berlin/ Brussels/Rome/Athens, and man, it was very expensive.”
Conveniently forgetting that it’s not expensive because the shopkeepers are having you over, and charging more than is reasonable, it’s expensive because the pound isn’t worth a handful of chocolate buttons.
 
Jean-F said:
The thing is, people say, “We were in Paris/Berlin/ Brussels/Rome/Athens, and man, it was very expensive.”
Conveniently forgetting that it’s not expensive because the shopkeepers are having you over, and charging more than is reasonable, it’s expensive because the pound isn’t worth a handful of chocolate buttons.
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It's quite complicated, and not one single thing rather than a lots of factors (profit margins, currency, tax, marketing, lifestyles)

is 80p for a bag of crisps in asdas expensive? is the same bag of crisps in spain at 80c expensive?
 
It will go below parity if we get no deal How low it will go and how long it will stay there is anyone's guess

I think Scotland could survive on its own fairly well.
Is a lot richer than a lot of countries that seem to survive. Whether it sees any benifit, time will tell. But it sure would be a giant middle finger to England And they love that
 
Jean-F said:
The thing is, people say, “We were in Paris/Berlin/ Brussels/Rome/Athens, and man, it was very expensive.”
Conveniently forgetting that it’s not expensive because the shopkeepers are having you over, and charging more than is reasonable, it’s expensive because the pound isn’t worth a handful of chocolate buttons.
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Well the pound is still worth more than the Euro.... I wonder how the Spanish and others cope with high prices + lower wages than UK.
 
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