Sound As a Pound?
A strong national currency is often deemed to be a symbol of economic virility.
That being the case, the pound sterling has been looking so flaccid of late that you'd be forgiven for thinking it had lost its supply of Viagra tablets down the back of the sofa.
Since its last peak against the Euro in December 2008 the pound is now down around 11% and relative to the lofty heights it managed to scale against the US dollar back in November 2007 it's taken a confidence-sapping hit of almost 25%! I suspect this droop in the pound's relative performance against a basket of the world's major currencies may have some deep underlying problems - such as continued abuse from politicians over a number of years.
In fact, if I were the pound, I'd be bombarding our Chancellor of the Exchequer with text messages by now asking: "How could you treat me like this Darling?!" So how did things come to this sorry pass? In a nutshell, the international capital markets are slowly waking up to the fact that Britain, (along with most Western countries) is technically bankrupt.
As a result, investors have decided to trade in their sagging pounds for more enticing prospects overseas that aren't weighed down by decades of accumulated nanny-state baggage, gargantuan levels of debt - both public and private - and rising comparative tax rates.
Much as it pains me, I have to say that a clear, long-term trend is now in place: the poor old pound is past its peak and it's all down-hill from here.
Investors are also waking up to the fact that cash-strapped governments like ours have decided that the only way they can ever hope to claw their way out of the bottomless pit of debt that they've dug is to print their way out of it.
Note the £200 billion worth of "quantitative easing" recently injected into the economy by the Bank of England - and, judging by recent statements by the Bank Governor, Mervyn King, it looks like there's going to be plenty more where that came from.
All this money printing is also happening against the background of a bank base rate of just 0.
5% - the lowest in our history.
It's as though the UK authorities are actively doing everything in their power to trash the value of our national currency - a reckless move when you consider that this is the currency we hope foreigners will continue to accept in exchange for nearly half our food (42% of our food is imported), not to mention many more of life's little essentials.
As I've discussed in previous articles, inflation in the UK is on the rise and the (regularly understated) CPI has, just as I feared, now hit 3.
5%.
For years, mainstream economists have been spouting their arcane twaddle about 'output gaps' in an attempt to persuade us that inflation is likely to remain low.
What's more, their arguments seem to have become accepted wisdom in the mainstream press with nary a croak of dissension in evidence.
Why is that I wonder? The reason for inflation's relentless rise is staring them in the face but these jumped-up hacks who call themselves economists are willfully ignoring it.
Nowhere have I seen any of them acknowledge that it is the deliberate policy of our government and the banking elite to bail out said banking elite by devaluing the pound and thus increasing the cost of food and essentials for ordinary hard-working citizens.
That simple but scandalous fact should be printed in foot-high headlines in every newspaper in the land, but for some reason, the press seems to be mute on this particular subject.
I fear the all too obvious conclusion, is that, in a country that likes to pride itself on being the world's oldest democracy, a subtle but very sinister form of press censorship now holds sway.
I'll leave you to ponder the implications of this development, but in the meantime, short of insurrection, what can you do to protect yourself? Well, it would be nice to think that if we all just saved a few more pounds each week we might be able to protect our standard of living and negate the effects of rising food prices.
As I've pointed out, however, our government and the bankers have other ideas.
They will ensure that your pounds lose value at an ever-increasing rate - perhaps catastrophically so if some as yet unforeseen catalyst causes investors to suddenly lose all confidence in the value and viability of the pound.
The only answer is to gradually convert the bulk of your cash savings into the essentials of life i.
e.
commodities and tangible things like food, oil, metals and, most important of all, precious metals which have acted as a store of value for 5000 years.
I say 'gradually' but don't take too long over it.
My instincts tell me that time is running out and it won't be long before it's the UK's turn to get the 'Greek treatment' and be used as the world's financial punch-bag.
By launching my website, my aim is to make the process of conversion into real assets as smooth and painless as possible for you and I hope you'll become a frequent visitor.
A quick look at the portfolio page of my site (free of charge for now) should reassure you that I and my readers are well positioned to protect ourselves from anything the currency speculators might throw at us.
So, my poor fellow UK citizens, I'll have to leave you this time around with a rather disturbing thought: thanks to your government and the bankers, the pound has now become impotent.
It's an old has-been that's had its day in the sun and no amount of financial aphrodisiac can reinvigorate it.
One thing's for sure; your money will never be the same again.
That being the case, the pound sterling has been looking so flaccid of late that you'd be forgiven for thinking it had lost its supply of Viagra tablets down the back of the sofa.
Since its last peak against the Euro in December 2008 the pound is now down around 11% and relative to the lofty heights it managed to scale against the US dollar back in November 2007 it's taken a confidence-sapping hit of almost 25%! I suspect this droop in the pound's relative performance against a basket of the world's major currencies may have some deep underlying problems - such as continued abuse from politicians over a number of years.
In fact, if I were the pound, I'd be bombarding our Chancellor of the Exchequer with text messages by now asking: "How could you treat me like this Darling?!" So how did things come to this sorry pass? In a nutshell, the international capital markets are slowly waking up to the fact that Britain, (along with most Western countries) is technically bankrupt.
As a result, investors have decided to trade in their sagging pounds for more enticing prospects overseas that aren't weighed down by decades of accumulated nanny-state baggage, gargantuan levels of debt - both public and private - and rising comparative tax rates.
Much as it pains me, I have to say that a clear, long-term trend is now in place: the poor old pound is past its peak and it's all down-hill from here.
Investors are also waking up to the fact that cash-strapped governments like ours have decided that the only way they can ever hope to claw their way out of the bottomless pit of debt that they've dug is to print their way out of it.
Note the £200 billion worth of "quantitative easing" recently injected into the economy by the Bank of England - and, judging by recent statements by the Bank Governor, Mervyn King, it looks like there's going to be plenty more where that came from.
All this money printing is also happening against the background of a bank base rate of just 0.
5% - the lowest in our history.
It's as though the UK authorities are actively doing everything in their power to trash the value of our national currency - a reckless move when you consider that this is the currency we hope foreigners will continue to accept in exchange for nearly half our food (42% of our food is imported), not to mention many more of life's little essentials.
As I've discussed in previous articles, inflation in the UK is on the rise and the (regularly understated) CPI has, just as I feared, now hit 3.
5%.
For years, mainstream economists have been spouting their arcane twaddle about 'output gaps' in an attempt to persuade us that inflation is likely to remain low.
What's more, their arguments seem to have become accepted wisdom in the mainstream press with nary a croak of dissension in evidence.
Why is that I wonder? The reason for inflation's relentless rise is staring them in the face but these jumped-up hacks who call themselves economists are willfully ignoring it.
Nowhere have I seen any of them acknowledge that it is the deliberate policy of our government and the banking elite to bail out said banking elite by devaluing the pound and thus increasing the cost of food and essentials for ordinary hard-working citizens.
That simple but scandalous fact should be printed in foot-high headlines in every newspaper in the land, but for some reason, the press seems to be mute on this particular subject.
I fear the all too obvious conclusion, is that, in a country that likes to pride itself on being the world's oldest democracy, a subtle but very sinister form of press censorship now holds sway.
I'll leave you to ponder the implications of this development, but in the meantime, short of insurrection, what can you do to protect yourself? Well, it would be nice to think that if we all just saved a few more pounds each week we might be able to protect our standard of living and negate the effects of rising food prices.
As I've pointed out, however, our government and the bankers have other ideas.
They will ensure that your pounds lose value at an ever-increasing rate - perhaps catastrophically so if some as yet unforeseen catalyst causes investors to suddenly lose all confidence in the value and viability of the pound.
The only answer is to gradually convert the bulk of your cash savings into the essentials of life i.
e.
commodities and tangible things like food, oil, metals and, most important of all, precious metals which have acted as a store of value for 5000 years.
I say 'gradually' but don't take too long over it.
My instincts tell me that time is running out and it won't be long before it's the UK's turn to get the 'Greek treatment' and be used as the world's financial punch-bag.
By launching my website, my aim is to make the process of conversion into real assets as smooth and painless as possible for you and I hope you'll become a frequent visitor.
A quick look at the portfolio page of my site (free of charge for now) should reassure you that I and my readers are well positioned to protect ourselves from anything the currency speculators might throw at us.
So, my poor fellow UK citizens, I'll have to leave you this time around with a rather disturbing thought: thanks to your government and the bankers, the pound has now become impotent.
It's an old has-been that's had its day in the sun and no amount of financial aphrodisiac can reinvigorate it.
One thing's for sure; your money will never be the same again.
Source...