WOW The £ dropped
EVEN LOWER yesterday £1 = $1.51

Thank god we've got over a year till we have to pay for this
One bit of good news not reported, it actually fell during the day 5 cents but actually had a little bounce back and ended up far less of a fall, 'might' have reached rock bottom , but soon somewhere someone will release it is far too undervaluded now and it will go back up. It might fall a little more bfore then but I would say long term its now too low.
Just think with a very low £ and low share prices, some global investors will be eyeing up our big companies to purchase them, from Football clubs to even Disney purchasing ITV.
Interesting...
... as of late I've been watching Jim Kramer with MAD MONEY - to gain some insights into certain aspects of our markets... and I've also mused how contradictory movements signaled a new wild frontier of sorts. Dan's observations echoed my thoughts in several ways - and Andrew, your comments are indeed quite interesting.
Off hand - I would rather NOT like to see any further shift or erosion in the housing market. I've seen academic opinions citing our housing decline should turn in the latter half of 2009... and if so that would be nice. In any event, it does NOT effect me adversely since I'll not sell anything - nor will I be compelled to under almost any circumstance. As such I'm looking to add to our real estate portfolio as well as raise rents further - as I usually rent under market if I have a good tenant. And with the rapid run up in recent years our rents were trailing the market badly.
Frankly, I've noted how China has gained substiantial ground in terms of GDP as well as emerging as a creditor of some merit for the US. (maybe I'm wrong - but it seems this way to me) And if I'm more or less correct - I wonder how this may influence our market with their pegged yuan valuation.
As for the YEN emerging as a haven - this is actually not too surprising to me.
I truly wish I had a better appreciation for the global economy. As such, I just trust in low or no load funds .. and ... Berkshire Hathaway to sort out how some of our assetts should be managed. A lotta good that's done us though with the evaporation in the markets. The only comfort I have - if you can call it that - is that all ships are falling in this harbor - and all I'm doing now is keeping a weather eye on the horizon so as to spot a tsunami surge following the drop in our harbor!
Oh well... with serious curiosity - and as yet, no hope in the near future of sorting any of it out. I think I should resume my pre-travel chores... I've just shuffled, cleaned and completed prep work on my digital media and computer equipment. It's just about time to pack it all up. Well - the last to pack will be the notebook. But I have the HD Camcorder charged, cards wiped, DSLR charging, cards wiped, Digicam charging, and cards wiped, and external HD was 90% reviewed and preped to travel.... and the notebook hard drive was 95% preped with a 30GB gain in capacity. The last thing I'll do before I turn in is to start defragging it. Otherwise - I'm about 75% along the way towards being ready to load the car and drive off. Now if only I had that ZIP LINE confirmation in my email ... oh well... maybe I'l end up paying a little more then?
I think the markets have forgotten that the USA has also a very big national debt now and the USA bail out will have to be paid for as well.
Money as you say will have to find a safe haven, and its gone into the $ for now, but I personally think that is a 'honeymoon' period as you say other currencies around the world maybe safer. In the USA you are in this 'no-mans land' where your old president is in his final few months and we do not know who you will vote in as yet, and what their actual economic policies in full will be until they commence office.
When that is clear the markets could react, IE The morning after the night before and you realize what state you are actually in.
The high $ isn't that good for the USA, it will make imports cheaper such as fuel but and a big but, your exporters are going to get hit very hard, and maybe we will see some global co ordinated interest rate cuts to stop the exchange rate fluctuations and panic.