Raiders Targeting “Losing” British Pound As Next Currency Prey
Posted By thestatedtruth.com on March 5, 2010
Anybody notice how hard it is to slow down deficit spending habits. it causes riots and all kinds of mischief!  Debt has to come down. How do we explain this to the average person who’s been taught to borrow and spend?
Speculators Eye Next Prey
How Safe Is Britain’s Proud Pound?
By Carsten Volkery in London
First the euro, now the pound. Britain’s currency is coming under massive pressure as speculators bet that the UK’s national debt will soon get out of hand. Like Athens, London has its share of problems — and the Brits don’t have any euro zone partners to back them up.
Schadenfreude may be a German word, but it has never been a foreign concept in Great Britain — particularly in recent months as the British watch the trials and tribulations of the European common currency, the euro. The budgetary and debt problems facing Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain have merely reinforced their conviction that staying out of the euro zone was the right decision. Unlike Berlin, London is not under pressure to come to the aid of Athens.
But speculators have not just taken aim at the euro in recent days. The British pound, too, has become a favored target — showing Brits how vulnerable their own currency may actually be. At the beginning of the week, the pound slid to a 10-month low of just $1.4781. Since then, the pound has staged a mini-recovery, moving back above $1.50 on Wednesday. But market pressure on the British currency is not likely to disappear overnight.
The most immediate trigger for the recent currency swoon came in the form of political surveys which indicated that a Conservative victory in general elections (which will likely be held in early May) may not be a foregone conclusion. Markets were alarmed out of fear that a close election could make it difficult for parliament to pass a strict package of savings measures.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,681597,00.html
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