Question Time

domtheone

Take your pick.

The Euro for starters.

sidicks

GBP is up around 10% on USD over the last 5 years (end 2008)  (20% down on the peak levels from 2007).


GBP is up around 10% on EUR over the last 5 years (end 2008)  (20% down on the peak levels from 2007).


GBP is up around 20% on JPY over the last 5 years (end 2008)  (40% down on the peak levels from 2007).

johntheexpat

Cherry picking your data again I see.

GBP is up around 10% on USD over the last 5 years (end 2008) (20% down on the peak levels from 2007).


GBP is up around 10% on EUR over the last 5 years (end 2008) (20% down on the peak levels from 2007).


GBP is up around 20% on JPY over the last 5 years (end 2008) (40% down on the peak levels from 2007).


But back to the original question.  Is devaluing by 15% a good idea?

Sonic67

??? Labour in the past under Kinnock was against European membership. Socalist Labour still is.

Socialist Labour Party Policies - Environment

The Socialist Labour Party is totally committed to complete withdrawal from the European Union, or Common Market as it was originally called. That is the only way Britain can begin to regain control of its economy, sovereignty and its political powers.

Please explain how they are right wing.

In bold if you like.

The Socialist Labour Party is totally committed to complete withdrawal from the European Union

As usual you will ignore it as this doesn't fit in with your UKIP/BNP etc mantra.

In fact where is your left wing credentials on this?

sidicks

Er, no, because I included all the figures!


Plus of course my post was in response to:

And looking at the last few years the GBP has strengthened not weakened.

Further, GBP declined significantly over (by 50% versus the Yen, 30% versus the dollar and 20% versus the EUR) during a 6-12 month period in 2007-2008.  So again, no devaluation has taken place 'over the last few years', purely in a short period more than 5 years ago, when base rates were reduced drastically.

The BOE devalued the currency 5 years ago.

But thanks for your attempt at petty point scoring!

Sonic67

From Socalist Worker. I am assuming they are not a right wing paper...

Bosses' EU club is not for us

Socialist Worker is against the European Union and will argue to vote to leave it in any referendum.

This is not about supporting “Little Englander” racists. Socialists have no truck with the nationalism of the Tory right.

But the EU is a club for bosses.

There isn't a national interest—what they mean is they want to protect the bosses' interests.

Some in the Tory party bemoan so called “Eurocrats” dictating what Britain's government can and can't do. But they don't worry about imposing austerity measures when they want to.

Some in the union movement look to the EU for support.

Battered by the bosses' attacks they believe that the EU is workers' only protection.

We reject the “race to the bottom” and argue for the extension of the best levels of social provision available.

In this crisis the EU has been used as negotiating committee to push through austerity.

We should oppose the EU as part of confronting the bosses' agenda.

We are with the workers of Europe fighting against austerity.

That fight is what the bosses in Britain and the rest of Europe are really afraid of.

krish

you would think that, but the now defunct Living Marxism and its online successor Spiked were/are pretty much right wing libertarian

EarthRod

This might be of interest:

New BoE chief Carney will devalue sterling, Pimco warns - Telegraph

"Growth in Britain is going to remain “challenged” for the next three to five years as the Government continues to shrink the public sector and cut the budget deficit."

@Sidicks:
The news seems bleak for the future and it would appear QE will be used again, so more GBP devaluation. I notice you try to paint an optimistic picture when in comes to economics and highlight the positives and play down the more 'challenged' aspects. Any reason for this?

Sonic67

From here:

(International Marxist Tendency)

EU Constitution debacle - The real nature of European Union exposed

From this they will conclude that what it is needed is the overthrow of this rotten capitalist European Union and they will replace it with the Socialist United States of Europe.

All an interesting article for their view on the EU and the Euro etc but I am really struggling to find any left wing/communist/socialist article that seems to view the EU as anything other than being capitalist.

Surely those a little on the left on this forum could help me out as to why they are supporting this “bosses playground”?

sidicks

QE commenced in 2009.  As per my previous post, the devaluation of sterling occurred in 2008 due to the steep fall in interest rates that occurred at that time.  Despite £375bn of QE since that time, GBP has strengthened against other major currencies (as demonstrated in my email above).

Where have I painted an optimistic picture?


Recent reports on Bloomberg have suggested that, as the economy is chugging away albeit slowly, further QE is off the table for the time being.

One thing I have emphasised that low growth is inevitable while the private sector are unwinding debts - an economy built on cheap credit is doomed to failure at some point.

Those that would encourage "growth" by either cheap credit / increased borrowing or by increased public spending, appear to simply want to defer the current problems into the future.

Clearly devaluation benefits exporters but disadvantages importers and raises the prices of overseas goods - given that commodities are typically priced in $, a devaluation increases inflation and reduces standards of living.  

I am not clear that increased growth that comes at an increased cost of living is attractive.