Britain is a winner

[Charles Foster Kane]

We still have the best sense of humour, for what it's worth. Germans and Americans think satire is a french finger food.

[Advocate]

The City are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Weapons is true, but how many bombs can you sell to terrorists?
Drugs are under pressure from cheaper locations
Services are heading East at some rate of knots and depend on a booming economy for growth.

Currently I'm guessing no more than one each...

[ace00]

1 has been dealt a body blow by the credit crunch
2 has been dealt a body blow by Yanks pulling out of Airbus contract.
3 has been dealt a body blow by Labour tearing up its purchasing contract with the pharmas
4 can't survive without the other 3.

Yeh, OK, I'm done defending UK.

Good article - what would be the upshot for Sterling valuation? Is it entirely dependant on interest rates or could a messed up economy drive down the exchange rate?

[ladymuck]

I thought the post title said 'Britain is a Whiner'

[sasguru]

Actually, that's not quite right. It's really out of character for me to talk up UK, personally don't like the place, but Uk does have earners:
1. The City (Nu/Old Lab don't like this)
2. Weapons (Big time death dealers)
3. Drugs (Glaxo,etc.)
4. Services (Us lot)

1 has been dealt a body blow by the credit crunch
2 has been dealt a body blow by Yanks pulling out of Airbus contract.
3 has been dealt a body blow by Labour tearing up its purchasing contract with the pharmas
4 can't survive without the other 3.

[DimPrawn]

Actually, that's not quite right. It's really out of character for me to talk up UK, personally don't like the place, but Uk does have earners:
1. The City (Nu/Old Lab don't like this)
2. Weapons (Big time death dealers)
3. Drugs (Glaxo,etc.)
4. Services (Us lot)

The City are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Weapons is true, but how many bombs can you sell to terrorists?
Drugs are under pressure from cheaper locations
Services are heading East at some rate of knots and depend on a booming economy for growth.

[sasguru]

no more sneering at my German friends...

damn, I use to love giving smug lectures about Britain's dynamic economy. Sounds like a return to 1992, when the the Germans gave me smug lectures.

They're probably laughing their heads off at how stupid we are. We confuse a "dynamic" economy with one where people consume a lot of stuff they don't need using money they don't have.

[ace00]

We don't make fook all and all the services are in India. All we've had is banks printing money and people spending the £100K their house had grown in equity over the last few years.

Britain is fooked beyond belief.

Boomed!

Actually, that's not quite right. It's really out of character for me to talk up UK, personally don't like the place, but Uk does have earners:
1. The City (Nu/Old Lab don't like this)
2. Weapons (Big time death dealers)
3. Drugs (Glaxo,etc.)
4. Services (Us lot)

[The Lone Gunman]

I think a few on here have been saying similar for some time.
I think I first proposed it on tulipe99 in 01.

[DimPrawn]

Germany is the biggest exporter of goods in the world (by value).

Bigger than the USA and China.

[BlasterBates]

no more sneering at my German friends...

damn, I use to love giving smug lectures about Britain's dynamic economy. Sounds like a return to 1992, when the the Germans gave me smug lectures.

[DimPrawn]

We don't make fook all and all the services are in India. All we've had is banks printing money and people spending the £100K their house had grown in equity over the last few years.

Britain is fooked beyond belief.

Boomed!

[sasguru]

Where are all those articles telling us how crap France, Germany and Japan are, now? Where's Dodgy with his analysis of how great GB is, now?

[Diver]

We'll be a third world economy by 2009.

I'm moving to Zimbabwe. I'll be a man of substance there

[BlasterBates]

or maybe a loser?