In the news

Rishi Sunak will not attend Conservative Party conference. He’ll be in Yorkshire instead.

Ally says former chancellor will give Truss all the space she needs to own the moment.

Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

They're ready for Rishi now.

Truss to miss conference with Covid yeah?

Odds at bookies?

Parliament recalled, Tory conference postponed. Indefinitely.

😂

With everything that's gone on in the last five days or so, it's easy to forget the country was facing several different crises beforehand.

I really want to see what Truss and Kwarteng say at the conference rather than it be scrapped. Going to be a car crash.

UK exports have declined compared to several years ago.

Yes, that's part of the balance that needs redressing. A weak currency helps as long as the materials are not imported, which of course they are largely.

A weak currency helps as long as the materials are not imported, which of course they are largely.

tangentially related to industry and import/exports is the fact it all needs the black stuff...and we have to buy oil & gas in dollars.

I'd be pretty interested in what they have to say about things today. I mean, they are supposed to be in charge, so doesn't seem to be too much to ask that they front up during a massive crisis they caused 5 days ago.
Apparently no-one knows where Truss is: https://twitter.com/campbellclaret/status/1575062726266671106

Of course I'd love to hear from them now but that seems unlikely given they've been completely silent since dropping the bombshells to date.

Sunday seems like an immovable object coming at them though. It's not like they can't show to their own party conference, right?!

Did the government intervention cap the wholesale prices in Dollars or Sterling?

Wouldn't she have been in Japan for Abe's funeral?

Wouldn't she have been in Japan for Abe's funeral?

The trouble is she's missing her own.

#rep

No. James Cleverly went

Did the government intervention cap the wholesale prices in Dollars or Sterling?

Sterling

EDIT: Not that it actually matters to the taxpayer. Whether its pegged to USD or GBP the taxpayer still has to find the USD amount one way or another....government debt or cash.

Maybe they should check Johnson's fridge...

Whether its pegged to USD or GBP the taxpayer still has to find the USD amount one way or another....government debt or cash

Very true.

It's all a bit up the ladder/down the ladder but we have needed to reverse the direction of the trade deficit for quite a while and part of what we're seeing now are the consequences.

Higher oil prices and a weak currency should affect imports as they will become more expensive where goods manufactured in the UK will become more competitive with imports and our exports may start to look cheaper.

For example we've been selling ships and stuff to France and Germany. The cost of the oil to deliver them is not such a big part of that deal. If you are negotiating with Rolls Royce for supply of engines and your alternative engine supplier is pricing in dollars with a contract potential lasting ten years you now might favour the Rolls Royce option.

Really we could separate the big business of import/export from the aliexpress/amazon type goods.

Another point worth bearing in mind is the treasury doesn't just sit on it's hands. They hold very large quantities of foreign currency to hedge the markets.

The cost of the oil to deliver them is not such a big part of that deal.

The cost of steel? Even if we use British steel it's made with gas. We also do a lot of ship fitting for foreign military where we are very dependent on importing electronic components.

Being a bit pedantic to be fair, your general point still stands.

They hold very large quantities of foreign currency to hedge the markets.

Apart from this, which is something that is putting the fear into my colleagues. The BoE has a tiny foreign reserve at the moment. By comparison to other major economies anyway. Less than £100bn.

Edit:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/britains-forex-reserves-wont-prop-up-pound-ex-boe-official-2022-09-26/

Being a bit pedantic

I would expect nothing less from you 😉

Fair ♥️

I do wonder a bit about how this plays out but surely there are discussions ahead of the kind of announcements made which lead to conversations with the Treasury and given that they will have strong beliefs about what the announcements will create in the markets they then go ahead forewarned and prepare a strategy (i.e. short the pound in some way).

Certainly this was what Carney alluded to around the Brexit referendum.