Eurozone will collapse... - Page 2

**Hugh** · 21-06-2011, 19:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by denphone

Nice to know you are blaming a politician other then a labour one.

I hold those who are responsible responsible, no matter what party - you should try it....

Sirius · 21-06-2011, 19:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by denphone

l will have to put this on record on you praising Gordon Brown.

Include me as well. The mans a prat but at least he kept us out of that shambles that is the Euro.

---------- Post added at 20:30 ---------- Previous post was at 20:27 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by denphone

You sure about that.

Which one of those 2 sold the gold off for the cheapest price he could find

Osem · 21-06-2011, 20:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by denphone

Nice to know you are blaming a politician other then a labour one.

Well with 13 years of government by New Labour with Brown at the top as Chancellor and PM ending only last year, it's hardly surprising that his name features rather a lot in our discussions about the mess we're in is it.

It was the same after Thatcher left office and, believe it or not, there are those around here who still go on about her as if she'd been in power until last year......

---------- Post added at 21:21 ---------- Previous post was at 21:19 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirius

Which one of those 2 sold the gold off for the cheapest price he could find

Yes I think that 'prudent' move rather dwarfs what was wasted at the time of the ERM debacle - our membership of which was, IIRC, supported by Labour at the time.

**Hugh** · 21-06-2011, 20:39

It was only Â£4.7 billion.....

Sirius · 21-06-2011, 20:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh

It was only Â£4.7 billion.....

only

Osem · 21-06-2011, 20:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirius

only

Â£4.7billion and counting?

-----------------

Found this if anyone's interested: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...rown-told.html

Quote:

The taxpayer lost an estimated Â£7 billion, twice the amount lost when Britain left the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.
The proceeds from the sales were invested in dollars, euros and yen. In recent years, most other countries have begun buying gold again in large quantities.

Sadly it all seems like peanuts given the vast sums currently at stake........

denphone · 22-06-2011, 04:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh

I hold those who are responsible responsible, no matter what party - you should try it....

There have been Labour politicians who have made mistakes
and there can be no denying that and there has also been a lot of Conservative ones that have made monumental mistakes in the past and there can be no denying that either.

**Chris** · 22-06-2011, 07:41

Ah. So Labour politicians make mistakes, but when Tories make them they're 'monumental'. Balanced. Not.

Osem · 22-06-2011, 08:42

I know whose monumental mistakes I'm more concerned about right now.

nomadking · 22-06-2011, 09:38

The ERM problems happened at a time when speculators were picking on different currencies, one after the other. If the speculators can be sure of how they are all likely to react(ie buy or sell a currency), then they can make easy money. IIRC the head of the German central bank(Bundesbank) said that sterling should be devalued, the government said they wouldn't. The ever helpful BBC News said that whenever a government said a devaluation wouldn't happen, it did anyway. This was the signal for action by the speculators. The government didn't devalue sterling, the money markets did. The speculators could profit by selling sterling, therefore driving the price down and then once things had settled, because the price had gone done, buy more sterling for the currency they had moved to(eg Deutsch Marks).

So the ERM problems were unseen to an extent, whereas the Gold issues where obvious straight away.

Osem · 22-06-2011, 09:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by nomadking

The ERM problems happened at a time when speculators were picking on different currencies, one after the other. If the speculators can be sure of how they are all likely to react(ie buy or sell a currency), then they can make easy money. IIRC the head of the German central bank(Bundesbank) said that sterling should be devalued, the government said they wouldn't. The ever helpful BBC News said that whenever a government said a devaluation wouldn't happen, it did anyway. This was the signal for action by the speculators. The government didn't devalue sterling, the money markets did. The speculators could profit by selling sterling, therefore driving the price down and then once things had settled, because the price had gone done, buy more sterling for the currency they had moved to(eg Deutsch Marks).

So the ERM problems were unseen to an extent, whereas the Gold issues where obvious straight away.

That's a very good point. When the speculators sense blood they really go for it. One reason why the EU shouldn't be seen to be weak or dithering about the economic crisis.

denphone · 22-06-2011, 09:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

Ah. So Labour politicians make mistakes, but when Tories make them they're 'monumental'. Balanced. Not.

Its depends on your political point of view but yes Gordon Brown made mistakes but there were strong world factors at work also and l do not think you can deny that either and on the point of balance well Chris that applys to many others on this forum as well.

---------- Post added at 10:54 ---------- Previous post was at 10:53 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osem

I know whose monumental mistakes I'm more concerned about right now.

Yes Mr Cameron has been making a few lately.

Tuftus · 23-06-2011, 22:47

This seems to be a hot topic on Question Time...

Bump!

---------- Post added at 23:47 ---------- Previous post was at 22:51 ----------

Sorry, thought it was.

Clearly not.

**Chris** · 23-06-2011, 22:51

I'd have added a comment or two if I'd seen QT. We were watching last night's Apprentice on iPlayer instead.

Might catch up with QT tomorrow.

Osem · 24-06-2011, 09:13

It's here for those who don't mind having their blood pressure go off the scale..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t1q9

---------- Post added at 10:13 ---------- Previous post was at 08:59 ----------

A smidgen of good news?

Quote:

David Cameron has won his battle to limit the amount of money the UK will have to contribute towards a second financial bail-out for Greece.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13896201