|
The reason for the panic, even over here in the UK and Europe, is the incredible fragility of modern day supply chains, the wafer thin inventories and the total reliance on petroleum products which, if there's a sudden run on currencies... it doesn't bare thinking about.
Most supermarkets in the US and UK will be stripped bare in under 3 days of _normal_ demand without deliveries.
I remember the Soros-inspired run on the Pound in the early nineties and the sudden jerk of its value in those days... down from around $1:80 or so to below parity, if memory serves, in very quick time. There was mild panic in the country, plenty of older folks went on a hoarding binge... they'd seen this sort of thing after the war...
Christ, the Irish Punt was was at 80p to 1 GBP for a good while... which was a crazy level. These were pre-tiger days. well... maybe it was a cub. (it's been hunted for its pelt as of now)
The situation now, the underlying situation, is a lot, lot worse than the relatively false position of the pound back then across the entire globe.
Ireland is melting down, Eastern Europe is on the verge of a full-blown, semi-continental currency crisis of epic proportions, the pound has lost about 35% versus the dollar, more versus the Euro, Japan's exports yoy are halved... HALVED... Similar story for Germany... China is lying through its teeth on the numbers and its economy (btw, have you noticed that every single govt statistic is being 'adjusted' negatively 6 weeks after being 'better than expected' this year?) every country is staring depression in the face and now... now the bond markets, which have trended to less and less coverage of t-bill/bond/gilt auctions over the past few months, well they seem to have had their fill.
The race to dollars and t-bills has been described as 'the last bubble'. If and when it pops...
If fuel prices were to rocket back up towards their prices of a year ago right now... either speculatively, or through a run on currencies...
Somehow, speculating on regulation just seems irrelevant.
__________________
"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." - Winston Churchill, 1937 --{ORLY?}--
|