is the dollar a safer bet than sterling right now

irishh_bob

i opened an account north of the border ( hsbc ) in the last few days and transfered just under 20 k into it yesterday , i still have another 15 k in bank of ireland , we need money to live afterall

my question is this , is the dollar a safer bet in the short term , were ireland to go down an even darker path in the next few weeks , would it effect the uk pound much more than the american dollar , seems as if the dollar is rallying this past while anyway

OfflerCrocGod

Best use of your funds would be to build a bomb shelter and to fill it with tinned food and weapons. If you have any funds left over buy some physical gold and ingest it so you have it on your person at all times.

irishh_bob

OfflerCrocGod wrote: »

Best use of your funds would be to build a bomb shelter and to fill it with tinned food and weapons. If you have any funds left over buy some physical gold and ingest it so you have it on your person at all times.

who ever said money men had no sense of humor

Jim2007

irishh_bob wrote: »

my question is this , is the dollar a safer bet in the short term , were ireland to go down an even darker path in the next few weeks , would it effect the uk pound much more than the american dollar , seems as if the dollar is rallying this past while anyway

The UK relationship to Ireland:
- Exports more to Ireland than to Brazil, Russia, India, China combined.
- The trade worth £23.8bn (28bn euros) to the UK.
- 40% of exports from Northern Ireland go south of the border
- £88bn worth of loans made by UK-based banks to Irish businesses and households
- Bank of Ireland runs the banking arm of the Post Office.

this was from the BBC news

Seems like a lot to loose....

Jim.

irishh_bob

Jim2007 wrote: »

The UK relationship to Ireland:
- Exports more to Ireland than to Brazil, Russia, India, China combined.
- The trade worth £23.8bn (28bn euros) to the UK.
- 40% of exports from Northern Ireland go south of the border
- £88bn worth of loans made by UK-based banks to Irish businesses and households
- Bank of Ireland runs the banking arm of the Post Office.

this was from the BBC news

Seems like a lot to loose....

Jim.

so in short , yes , the pound is more vulnerable than the dollar

Jim2007

irishh_bob wrote: »

so in short , yes , the pound is more vulnerable than the dollar

Well to reach that conclusion you'd need to get some statistics on the US, would you not????

irishh_bob

Jim2007 wrote: »

Well to reach that conclusion you'd need to get some statistics on the US, would you not????

statisitics go out the window when you find yourself in a currency crisis like this , fear of a euro collapse if the only thing driving up the price of the dollar and to a lesser degree the pound

due to the fact that the uk is so heavily exposed to irish debt , i believe the dollar is a safer bet in the short term but once the irish bailout is signed and sealed , the euro is likeley to regain ground on both the dollar and pound , that is unless portugal stands next in line for a bailout , my concern as an irish account holder would be that even the euro rebounds , we may not be in the single currency to benefit

Cavehill Red

Two words about the dollar - Quantative Easing.
It's being devalued daily.
Safe havens currently? Few and far between. Aussie dollar or Swiss Franc, but everyone else has ran for them and they're likely overvalued.
Gold or Silver, but similarly, there's been a run to precious metals in recent times.
I've cash spread between sterling, euro and precious metals because it seems to me that the dollar is long-term screwed, and while gold and silver are near highs, they can never devalue utterly, unlike paper currencies.
I function in the euro and sterling zone, so I intend to keep afloat in both.
I wouldn't be in dollars unless I had to, ie I had business there or intended living there.

irishh_bob

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Two words about the dollar - Quantative Easing.
It's being devalued daily.
Safe havens currently? Few and far between. Aussie dollar or Swiss Franc, but everyone else has ran for them and they're likely overvalued.
Gold or Silver, but similarly, there's been a run to precious metals in recent times.
I've cash spread between sterling, euro and precious metals because it seems to me that the dollar is long-term screwed, and while gold and silver are near highs, they can never devalue utterly, unlike paper currencies.
I function in the euro and sterling zone, so I intend to keep afloat in both.
I wouldn't be in dollars unless I had to, ie I had business there or intended living there.

i absolutley agree that the dollar is on a downer long term but for those who want to get out of ( irish based ) euro accounts untill the dust settles , i believe the dollar may be a good short term bet , were it not for the fact that british banks are so exposed to irish debt , i believe sterling would be quite safe although i realise the last thing the british economy wants is a strong pound , putting money in swiss francs involves offshore accounts and im not rich enough or interested in enough in long term savings for it to be worth the effort

as for gold , im in it in a small way , personally i think silver and copper ( especially ) are looking better than gold in the short term

Cavehill Red

irishh_bob wrote: »

i absolutley agree that the dollar is on a downer long term but for those who want to get out of ( irish based ) euro accounts untill the dust settles , i believe the dollar may be a good short term bet , were it not for the fact that british banks are so exposed to irish debt , i believe sterling would be quite safe although i realise the last thing the british economy wants is a strong pound , putting money in swiss francs involves offshore accounts and im not rich enough or interested in enough in long term savings for it to be worth the effort

as for gold , im in it in a small way , personally i think silver and copper ( especially ) are looking better than gold in the short term

The dollar will tank V euro as soon as Ireland's forced to take a bailout. That could be as early as today (though more likely by Monday.)
By the time you've got into dollars it could be time (or even too late) to get back out.
Silver and copper been surging recently, especially copper. Silver and gold took a hit the other week with profit taking, and while silver's fully recovered, gold's still a little down from its highpoint.
Hard to read the runes there, but I don't see any of them making significant drops. But they are volatile markets and with copper at a high and silver close, it seems to me that gold is the (relative) bargain with upside.

irishh_bob

Cavehill Red wrote: »

The dollar will tank V euro as soon as Ireland's forced to take a bailout. That could be as early as today (though more likely by Monday.)
By the time you've got into dollars it could be time (or even too late) to get back out.
Silver and copper been surging recently, especially copper. Silver and gold took a hit the other week with profit taking, and while silver's fully recovered, gold's still a little down from its highpoint.
Hard to read the runes there, but I don't see any of them making significant drops. But they are volatile markets and with copper at a high and silver close, it seems to me that gold is the (relative) bargain with upside.

how do you think the sterling will react to the imminent irish bailout

Cavehill Red

irishh_bob wrote: »

how do you think the sterling will react to the imminent irish bailout

If we take the bailout, sterling ought to get a bigger bounce than the euro in the medium term. Short term, the euro would be likely to bounce more.
But you can rarely predict market reactions.

irishh_bob

Cavehill Red wrote: »

If we take the bailout, sterling ought to get a bigger bounce than the euro in the medium term. Short term, the euro would be likely to bounce more.
But you can rarely predict market reactions.

id have thought sterling would take a hit if the bailout goes through , sterling has been up against the euro this past week despite the fact that the uk economy is in worse shape than the bulk of the eurozone , i realise the health of the irish economy is important in the long term for the pound but right now i think a jittery eurozone will increase the pound and this is quite evident this past week

Cavehill Red

irishh_bob wrote: »

id have thought sterling would take a hit if the bailout goes through , sterling has been up against the euro this past week despite the fact that the uk economy is in worse shape than the bulk of the eurozone , i realise the health of the irish economy is important in the long term for the pound but right now i think a jittery eurozone will increase the pound and this is quite evident this past week

Yes, but the eurozone should become less jittery once we're forced to take a bailout.
However, the sterling zone's exposure to our economy (and our bank debts) is bigger proportionately than the eurozone's.
That's why I think there would be an initial fillip to the euro, followed by a longer term rise to sterling.

irishh_bob

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Yes, but the eurozone should become less jittery once we're forced to take a bailout.
However, the sterling zone's exposure to our economy (and our bank debts) is bigger proportionately than the eurozone's.
That's why I think there would be an initial fillip to the euro, followed by a longer term rise to sterling.

if the uk was more vulnerable than the eurozone countries to an irish meltdown , how come sterling has been rising against the euro all week , the natural state of affairs is for the sterling to be loosing against the euro , this has been the case this past three years at least , surely then a return to a more stable eurozone post irish bailout would restore order and the pound would resume its normal slide against the euro