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‘If you really want a fiscal problem, look at the UK’

uk crisisInvestors are asking if Britain may soon face its own sovereign debt crisis if the government fails to slash its growing budget deficits quickly enough to escape the contagious fears of financial markets.…

“If you really want a fiscal problem, look at the U.K.,” said Mark Schofield, a fixed-income strategist at Citigroup. “In Europe, the average deficit is about 6 percent of G.D.P. and in the U.K. it’s 12 percent. It is only just beginning.”

the government and its citizens have been able to continue to borrow at interest rates that do not reflect their true financial situation.

As for the British government, it has been able to finance a budget deficit of 12.5 percent of G.D.P. — equal to Greece’s — at an interest rate more than two full percentage points lower only because the Bank of England bought the majority of the bonds it issued last year.

David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff also referred to the piece in his morning missive, noting:

Britain is probably one of the few countries in the world where political uncertainty, a renewed round of house price deflation and a sinking currency can manage to elicit a bounce in consumer sentiment (the country has a Greek-like 12.5% deficit-to-GDP ratio, which is double the European average and a household debt-to-GDP ratio that, at 170%, makes the U.S. household sector downright frugal at 130%

The Best 10 things George Soros Ever Said About Trading

On September 16, 1992 – later dubbed “Black Wednesday” — the day the  British government abandoned the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), and the pound was devalued by 20% George Soros made over $1.2 billion  on his short sterling trade  and was dubbed  “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England.”  His Quantum Hedge Fund has returned about 20 percent a year, on average, since 1969. These are amazing results, and some of the best ever achieved. Many of the years he was personally running it he had 30% returns and two years returned an amazing 100%.

Risk Management

“I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong…I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes.”

“My approach works not by making valid predictions but by allowing me to correct false ones.”

Trader Psychology

“It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.”

“The markets are always on the side of exuberance or fear. It’s fear and greed. Right now greed has the better of it, which is rather nice (for investors) as long as it doesn’t get out of hand,” (more…)

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