Black Monday anyone? The tories should be in jail

[Upthebracket22]

The pound is now at its lowest point against the dollar since decimalisation in 1971 at 1.03. It’s probably going lower and the Bank of England will likely need to step in with an emergency interest rate rise today. Black Monday possibly?

All because of the mini budget on Friday. The Tories should be in jail. Especially if their rich backers were shorting the pound as it appears to get rich.

Thanks for explaining.
The ‘PhD in economics’ has been trotted out several times and when you look at his academic pedigree, it’s outstanding.

But as you say, clearly nothing to do with anything meaningful in Economics.

Do you happen to know if any suitably qualified person, anywhere, has has anything good, or at least not totally negative to say about what he’s done?

I have struggled to find anything but damning opinions whenever I’ve looked, which probably says it all really.

I think this too. We are on the verge of leaving the country tbh. Having serious conversations about it because we can. Ironically we're Tory poster children in spite of never, ever voting for them. Our mortgage is paid off and tax cuts help us but we don't want to live in some Lord of the Flies dystopia where even more people die of cold and hunger.

I will never forgive the opposition parties for making themselves so utterly unelectable. Labour in particular. Every beardy misogynist cockhead - go fuck yourself. The Tories are where they are because you never, ever learn from the mistakes of the past. Never.

Patrick Minford is old school economist and been advising Ms Truss for a while now.
We have to remember that when Mrs Thatcher did this type of thing in the 80s the Bank of England and the city were all behind her , this feels different as it's different times now and the energy crisis isn't helping either. Capitalism depends on low energy costs.
My Dh is is conservative voter and he is just hoping it won't be too bad. He has no idea of the damage it could cause us all though :(
I do feel a few people will just cross their fingers or just pray it won't go too badly.
They are the ones with the degrees and the experience ( so we are told)

And this

The mess we are in this morning as a country is unbelievable. I’m all out of fucks to give at this point, not a single fuck to be found, entirely fuckless.

The mess is so big, and runs so deep into corruption territory (there will be millionaires and billionaires making big money from this shit show!) that it feels almost too insurmountable.

What are we supposed to do? Not only will people be unable to heat their homes this winter, the looming interest rates now mean people might not even have a home to heat!

It’s some sort of dystopian nightmare. I have to admit until this point I’ve either said well I voted Tory because it made sense at the time, I’ve trotted out that now cringeworthy line of “but labour are no better” and last week considered myself politically homeless. I’m now at the point of saying well fuck it, let labour have a crack because this current government is now entirely unfit for purpose.

The only thing I’ve found so far that it isn’t falling against is bitcoin. And there’s a very definite cliff edge for most things on Friday morning.

It would be more productive to INVEST in basic infrastructure that businesses and individuals rely on, public services, fast internet, public transport so people can still get to work whatever the oil producing nations get up to, training people…invest on a large scale in green tech to stabilise our energy supply and transport. Invest in our food security.

Allocating money to the poorest to stop hunger and homelessness is humane and absolutely should have been part of the package. How is it that for this government, top earners get a carrot of financial incentives, whereas ordinary people get the stick of universal credit sanctions. Giving money to the already wealthy doesn’t trickle down into the wider economy, so it’s pointless as others have already said.

What's happening on Friday morning?

It was a question, with one question mark, just to clarify that as you seemed to have missed that!

Don’t tell me what I meant.

And really, who’s being patronising here?

No, it’s in economic history. You can’t predict the future by looking in the rear view mirror.

The rich won't have any incentive to spend now that interest rates are going up. Far better to sit on it and watch that balance increase!

Agreed, they should be in jail.

To be fair that’s not what the poster said. They were blaming Corbyn for the fact we now have a Tory government as he was never going to be electable, yet his supporters failed to grasp that. I hate the tories more than anyone and don’t think for a second we would be in this mess with Labour - even Corbyn’s Labour, but it’s irrelevant when there was never any realistic chance of him being in power. I really hope people manage to grasp this before the next GE or we really are fucked.

Hi, @Quincythequince - I have been appalled by the mistaken attribution of KK’s PhD. I do agree that his degrees - his Humanities degrees - are superb. But the arrogance of assuming he has unique insights into the current crisis is breathtaking.

Although I am ethically opposed to Friday’s mini-budget, the markets have no such stance. As I write the pound is at USD 1.03, down from 1.08 ( already thought a disaster) right after KK spoke. The reason you cannot find anyone with anything good to say about this is that there is nothing good to be said. If the experts were divided, the markets would be also.

What would you do?

Exactly. People parrot this 'I can't vote for Labour any more, Labour are weak' 'Labour are unelectable because of XYZ leader otherwise I'd vote' shite and people don't understand the people spreading this are either Tories or bots!! People are reading these daft statements (always produced worth zero evidence to back them up) and actually believing them despite having no substance behind them.

Without wishing to derail the thread, the only criticism of Labour that holds any weight at all IMO is labours non GC stance but frankly women are being completely shafted by the conservatives, it's single mothers and children who have been screwed over firstly by austerity measures for years and now this shit. The Tories will not help women, Labour are our best chance of working class women and children being lifted out of poverty, the kind of extreme poverty that we are seeing now that hasn't been seen for decades in this country.

Will the banks put up savings rates though?
I bet they don't.

Yes, so I’ve discovered.
Thank you.

I could have written your first paragraph. People who lead wealth creating businesses generally like to live somewhere safe with a clean environment and a high general standard of living. It’s another reason why this budget strategy won’t work. The UK isn’t an attractive place to live and raise your children relative to some of the alternatives open to high net worth individuals.

This growth nonsense is just that - it's just making big bets (probably shorts) on the UK market - win big it's almost a one-way bet at the moment and get your money banked offshore. Rinse and repeat. Kwarteng working for the hedge fund Odey AM gave him great tutelage and Rees-Mogg is a founder of one.

They are evil but operate mostly in the unregulated shadows and make huge profits not making anything else but literally making money and because they are as rich as Croesus they attract the greediest and best minds in the world. Think Blofeld in James Bond shovelling cash into their greedy mouths. One owns most of the Uk care homes I seem to remember and the NHS is one great big chunky piece of meat to devour. They are like vultures around a carcass with regards to the Uk at the moment.

www.financial-spread-betting.com/Hedge-funds.html

In atonement for my crass comment here's some righteous anger to get angry about.

No, it’s in economic history. You can’t predict the future by looking in the rear view mirror

History tends to repeat itself and has useful pointers to be considered in different situations.

People jumpy about right wing governments because of Mussolini and Hitler.

Equally, you would be very unlikely to get a PhD in economic history without a decent grasp of economics.

I said on these threads in early December 2019 that having J C as Labour leader would mean a conservative government and hardly anyone believed me because they had done fairly well in 2017.
It was a brexit election. Of course they were going to lose it with Boris Johnson at their helm!

@midsomermurderess no I'm not, because I look at Bloomberg all day long. We're now almost back at 1.08, I've worked through the formation of the Euro, the Argentinian debt crisis, 9/11, the GFC, Brexit. I'm quite astounded at the level of panic I'm seeing on this thread. It's unprecedented, yes, the markets are shocked and working through it - but when I see the likes of @vera99 calling for politicians to be shot - well I despair frankly.

My own PhD is in STEM and I know my limitations. I would prefer a general election but I would settle for Rishi. Or Phil Hammond. Or Kenneth Clarke.