Black Wednesday - 16 September 1992

Black Wednesday,16 September 1992. The UK Conservative government was forced to withdraw the Pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) due to pressure by currency speculators — most notably George Soros, who made over US$1 billion from this speculation. In 1997 the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/16/newsid_2519000/...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• black
• wednesday
• erm
• uk
• britain
• european
• exchange
• rate
• pound
• 1992
• norman
• lamont
• john
• major
• tory
• party
• conservative

[Sixxstring90]

When Labour came to power in 1997, they inherited a regulatory system that meant banks had balance sheets that were in surplus e.g. they had more coming in than going out.  In 2007, banks on average were lending out 34 times more than they were reining in, because Labour took away the Bank of England's power to regulate debt levels in the economy. Mrs Thatcher was a monetarist, and she made sure that the money supply in the economy was prudent and sustainable. Brown destroyed that idea

[Dendiol]

@getmadgetmad1 Don't trust the Tories..

[meProudToBeCaucasian]

this is your economy Britons

[boffinme80]

This recession wasn't as bad as the one in the early 80s. Black Wednesday was bad and Major shouldn't have signed the Treaty, but we did recover quickly, more so than the one from the early 80s. By early 1993 unemployment was quickly falling and optimism came into the country. Major did make mistakes but tell me, what pm has NOT made a mistake in his lifetime? Harold Macmillan one of the greatest pms we've ever had, during the Suez Crisis but no politician had ever been perfect.

[LawrenceLugar500]

Black Wednesday, Black Friday...every day of the week should be black [laugh track]

[rifrafrulez]

@Sixxstring90 Get your facts straight. The Major governments paved the way for making the Bank of England independent. It was a Major-Lamont policy goal but they didn't survive to implement it. And Major inherited massive public spending deficits from Thatcher, and had to deal with a recession. Many of her economic policies were a) failures and b) came at the expense of compassionate government. Not a great record.

[Bushcamper4Sale]

@MrGurlyboy Yeah - and now your kids are going to have to pay for it. Nice one dad.

[Dendiol]

Look out for DC on Lamont's right.

[TheN1mble]

день моего рождение это бля! а не черная среда сука!

[usainlightning]

It's hilarious how labour were even greater supporters of the ERM.

[MrGurlyboy]

@Sixxstring90 Big whoop. I grew up during the Thatcher and Major years, my parents were earning less than £100 a week, which even for the 80s and 90s was a terrible income. The electric was always getting cut off and they'd go without food to feed me. Then Labour came in and sorted out a national minimum wage and tax credits for the not so well off.

[antitheistpansy]

@ciaran3707 Furthering his career of course :). Soros wins. The people lose over £1 billion pounds.