Friday, January 29, 2021

UK Borrowed Foreign Currency from the IMF in 1976 — NeilW

The 1976 IMF debacle in the UK was a defining moment when the promotion of full employment ended. Fundamentally though it was a political mistake by people who didn’t understand that floating the UK pound fundamentally changed how it behaved....
New Wayland
UK Borrowed Foreign Currency from the IMF in 1976
NeilW

12 comments:

Matt Franko said...

“floating the UK pound fundamentally changed how it behaved.”

“Floating” is figurative language and “how it behaved” is an anthropomorphism....

Can we just stick with proper abstractions?

Matt Franko said...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displacement_(fluid)

“Thus buoyancy is expressed through Archimedes' principle, which states that the weight of the object is reduced by its volume multiplied by the density of the fluid. If the weight of the object is less than this displaced quantity, the object floats; if more, it sinks.”

If you make the density of the two objects EQUAL... then you achieve neutral buoyancy... ie it neither “floats!” or “sinks!”...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_buoyancy

Density is a ratio of mass/volume , numismatic unit conversion is a ratio of Currency X/Currency Y or Y/X... if you set the ratio of X/Y = Y/X then you can neutralize any current system instability being caused by fluctuations in conversion rate...

Maybe take some courses in Science and Math... skip the Creative Writing...

lastgreek said...

Matt, you use figurative language all the time -- and why shouldn't you when it helps you make your point better understood by the reader. So no need to be rude.

OK... D=M/V. Pretty easy formula. So you tell a student, "The Density of an object is its mass divided by its volume,"and you leave it at that. You know what? You probably lost the student. What if, instead, you explained first what the density of an object/material means before you introduce the formula? You see, what good is a formula if the student doesn't understand how it was derived. So go ahead, try it on a dummy like me -- explain to me what is density.

Matt Franko said...

Yes, There is nothing wrong with figurative language AS LONG AS both you and your audience understand the literal...

In this case Neil probably understands the literal but NOOOOOOOOOBODY in his general audience does...

It’s a problem..,

Matt Franko said...

“explain to me what is density.”

It’s mass divided by volume.., ???? I just told you... didactically...

Mass is the kg of the object and volume is the cubic meters of the object.... divide the two quantities and report in the correct units...

This is not a dialogue.., you either use that formula or I will give you ZERO credit....

This is how STEM is taught..,

If you want dialogue then don’t take STEM... take some sort of Art Discipline or do something else...

Matt Franko said...

“What is Money?”

Dialogic waste of time by Art degree morons...

Peter Pan said...

Floating through the air, like a balloon. Depending on air currents and temperature, the balloon will change course and altitude.

Anchoring your balloon, um currency, prevents this.

Matt Franko said...

It would take a bilateral agreement between the two nations to maintain the exchange rate at parity...

With trump gone that type of thing is less likely for now... back to the multilateral chaos at least for a while...

Peter Pan said...

What's the difference between pegging one currency to another, and maintaining parity?

lastgreek said...

“... volume is the cubic meters of the object.... “

That depends on whether the object is a solid or a liquid :)

Matt Franko said...

Liter = 1 cubic decimeter

NeilW said...

"Can we just stick with proper abstractions?"

It is the proper abstraction. It was the abstraction well before the United States was even a country.

In the UK we have things that are floated, things that are funded (ie attached to a fund) and things that are unfunded (ie not attached to a fund).

Things that are floated are eliminated by 'sinking funds'.

It's all part of coming from a country with an actual history that knows how to actually do finance and accountancy - and boats. Lots of boats.

;-)