Monday, Feb 18, 2008
This is approaching Banana Republic status," said Albert Edwards from Société Générale
The Telegraph: Basket case Britain must rebuild its credibility
Britons cling to a comforting notion that overpopulated islands with a shortage of land can never suffer a sharp fall in house prices. Such illusions are often at the root of the most extreme asset bubbles.
Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 12:05 PM (1756 views) Add Comment
12 Comments
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1. sold 2 rent 1 said...
This explians why the GBP is toast.
I read the posts yesterday about people planning to put their cash in NR to get an extra 1pc interest.
The GBP will devalue sharply over the next 12-24 months which means no GBP account is safe from currency devaluation/ inflation erosion
2. sold 2 rent 1 said...
Interesting comments at the bottom too
"An excellent article! I believe, as the writer has pointed out to an extent, that HMS Britain is being deliberately steered into the rocks at full speed until it crashes. Why? Because the people will then be told THE ONLY way out of the mess is to join the Euro. The complete takeover of Britain by the unelected EU commission will then be complete..... "
But if the US, Europe et al are heading for a debt fuelled bust, and China et al are heading for an investment bust because their export markets collapse where does that leave the world governments for solutions.
The outcome is hyperinflation or depression for us. Or is there a third way. If enough governments and economies are in trouble by 2010-1011 then will it not be a possibility they will strike to seize the world's gold at a knocked down dictated price and form a world currency backed by the seized gold.
This may seem a crazy idea but history has shown gold has swung in and out of favour many times. If the world loses faith in fiat currencies, I can't see another Bretton Woods agreement whereby one reserve currency is backed by gold and all others are backed by that reserve currency.
3. cornishman said...
s2r1 - you forgot the fourth way - WW3...
4. mark wadsworth said...
I posted as follows:
"A fine article, but I'd query the very first premise. The UK is not 'overpopulated' per se - only ten per cent of the surface area is developed and we have just about the smallest houses and gardens in Europe. There's no 'shortage of land', there is a 'shortage of land with planning permission'."
5. sold 2 rent 1 said...
cornishman,
WW3, as in nuclear exchange, is an option but an unlikely one. The cold war suggests that the nuclear deterrent seems to work.
A move to a gold backed currency is much more likely when US history is considered.
Gold as money has waxed and waned in importance 7 times in 250 years.
After 35 years of an unhinged USD, the debt bubble in the USD and many other fiat currencies is near a peak.
IMHO it is time for a change. What question is what will be the change?
6. cornishman said...
I can't see the Russians or the Chinese agreeing to your suggestion, s2r1. Any 'seizing' of gold would be met by force, I reckon. Not nuclear, though. Well, not to start with! And is there any gold left in Fort Knox in any case?
I agree with you, though, something big has to happen. I can't see any way that things can just carry on the way they have.
Interesting times!
7. Plato said...
WW3 Result : Russia 1 The Rest 0 - So don't even think about it.
8. Orwell said...
"...Finally, the chickens are coming to roost: the UK is a severely over-rated country. Its houses and flats are in poor condition (can you even get a decent shower anywhere?), the highstreets are filthy, violent and chaotic, the population obese and due to cause huge costs for the health service. It's a wreck. None of the economic fundamentals make sense anymore....2
From one of the bloggers. Mmmmmmm.
9. Planner said...
Mark Wadsworth: I work in the development business and believe me, there is plenty of land with residential planning permissions. The development rate of these sites is however slow as developers have little financial incentives to build homes more quickly. HM Govt is investigating encouraging quicker building, but as I understand it, with little success. Furthermore, build-our rates are likely to fall in the likely forthcoming downturn.
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