On Sep 19, 2006, at 5:55 PM, Charles Brown wrote:
> However, the current price drop is less attributable to a
> thingwithnoname
> because there's no big political event like 9/11 that could be
> claimed to
> trigger it.
It doesn't take much to burst a speculative bubble, though higher interest rates (and we've had plenty of those) are always effective.
> What about big plays by individuals ? Was it Soros who stuck up the
> British
> financiers ? Perhaps that is cunning in anticipating a change of
> price, not
> causing a change of price ?
Soros sold short the British pound after the Brit government brought the currency into the European exchange rate mechanism at a preposterously high value - following the stupid advice of The Economist, which wanted to make the Confederation of British Industry "scream" (an editorial I remember well). The pound was going to crack, somehow, sometime. Soros just timed his move well.