“What’s more, capital flows from the eurozone to perceived “safe havens” such as the UK are slowing as the crisis eases.”

As these columns have consistently pointed out this was the real motive for the campaign against the euro. It succeeded in that it gave the totally bankrupt British economy a couple of years grace reinforced by the illusion that we were cutting our fiscal deficit.

Nearly thirty years of current account deficit have been covered by pounds sterling. These in turn will have been mainly reinvested in UK government bonds. This the free lunch that Prof. Michael Hudson talks about with respect to the US economy. The end of the free lunch is the end of the game. We have no choice but to negotiate our terms of bankruptcy with our international partners. Demilitarisation and definancialisation of the key cards we will use in these negotiations

Jeremy Warner

Telegraph

7th January, 2013

It’s the sort of problem you might have thought disappeared with the 1970s, but as the Coalition renews its wedding vows, that’s the unsettling possibility raised by economists at both HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland. With fears of a eurozone break-up, a calamitous fiscal contraction in the US, and a hard landing in China now fast receding, it is possible financial markets will refocus their attentions on more conventional concerns. The failings of the UK economy might be prime among them.

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The great British crisis hasn’t really even begun. The great Euro scare has enabled the pound to increase its overvaluation over the last couple of years and, therefore, allowed the free lunch to run on. We continue to run a permanent current account deficit financed by a fiat currency, a fiat currency which is being quantitatively eased. This little noted anomaly is unsustainable and the day of reckoning is nigh.

Guardian

4th January, 2012

Triple dip here we come. That’s the clear message from the latest health check on the services sector from CIPS and Markit. To say the report was a disappointment is an understatement. News that activity fell for the first time since December 2010, when Britain was shivering under a foot of snow, came as a real jolt after the slightly better news from manufacturing earlier in the week.

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For all the talk of Britain suffering because of the Euro crisis the reality is that she has been the main beneficiary: even a hint of the resolution of the Euro crisis will expose the exceptional vulnerability of the Pound

Bloomberg

30th November, 2012

The pound fell to a five-week low against the euro amid speculation European officials are making progress in stemming the region’s debt crisis, damping demand for the relative safety of the U.K. currency.

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Yorkshire Evening Post

20th October, 2012

Cash-strapped residents in Leeds are turning to crime and converting their homes into cannabis farms to make ends meet, the YEP can reveal.

Britain could be heading for a bigger budget deficit next year than crisis-hit Greece and Spain, according to research by Morgan Stanley.

Telegraph

23rd September, 2012

Economists at the investment bank calculated that Britain’s budget deficit could total £126bn, or 7.8pc, of gross domestic product in 2013-14.

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Guardian

9th August, 2012

The UK’s biggest trade deficit since modern records began 15 years ago prompted calls last night for the government to provide more help for exporters struggling to cope with weakening global demand for their products.