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Originally Posted By: Mr Wiggles


As an example of topsy-turvyness, the JET scheme salary of 300,000 a month is now nearly 30k in UK money. That's a lot more than the starting salary for a qualified UK teacher with a PGCE.


was just doing that Math today....it sure makes paying my UK credit card back much easier biggrin
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One pound now buys you one of these. Only if you get a good exchange rate though!

Click to reveal..
boss-super.jpg

The British papers are starting to use expressions like "parity with the dollar". And I thought I was pessimistic.

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Interesting Indepemdent today:

 

When asked his advice for a young person growing up in Britain, Jim Rogers, former partner of George Soros and one of the world's most successful investors, is forthright. "Move to China; learn Chinese." In an interview with The Independent, Mr Rogers warns that Britain will go bankrupt if the Government continues to follow its present policy of attempting to save the banks through subsidy and nationalisation.

 

He has sold all his sterling assets and has "no position" in sterling, but Mr Rogers reveals that he had been planning to short-sell sterling in the present financial crisis, before recent disparaging remarks about the pound's prospects from his own lips had put paid to those plans. "I should have kept my mouth shut."

 

Mr Rogers had in mind a repeat of his previous coup, when he and Mr Soros's Quantum Fund famously "broke" the Bank of England in 1992, when sterling was forced out of the European exchange rate mechanism, costing UK taxpayers $1bn and making Mr Soros and Mr Rogers correspondingly wealthier.

 

Sterling is at a 10-year low against the dollar, and Mr Rogers is confident that it will fall to below its previous nadirs, though he has "no idea" where that floor may eventually be. His message is blunt: we used to have North Sea oil and the City of London, but now "you don't have anything to sell... it's a terrible shame".

 

Mr Rogers is still more forthright in his advice to the Prime Minister, who he urges to resign, but not before abolishing the Bank of England. "They are the ones printing all this money," he said. "Central bankers are not gods or geniuses; why does anyone think they are?"

 

The US Federal Reserve, Mr Rogers thinks, is also on the road to bankruptcy, and he points out that the US has already had three central banks in its history. Instead, the Singapore-based billionaire urges the UK authorities to take the radical step of allowing the commercial banks to fail. He cites the example of South Korea, Russia and other nations where such financial violence was followed by a renewed burst of growth and prosperity, in a relatively short space of time.

 

In the overwhelmingly likely event of Mervyn King and Gordon Brown ignoring Mr Rogers' advice, the "crushing" burden of debt and of taxation to service that debt will bankrupt the UK, "technically or de facto", with a "terrible" inflation to follow.

 

A colourful figure, Mr Rogers was born in Alabama and educated at Yale and Oxford. He has made it into Guinness World Records for some of his epic motorcycle journeys. He began collaborating with George Soros in the Seventies and more recently has specialised in commodities. In 2007, at the age of 63, he drew some attention for his decision to move from New York to Singapore, declaring that "moving to Asia now is like moving to New York City in 1907".

 

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I know some people who just went crazy with loans and have huge debt - living in luxury, so they thought. One of them has lost their job. I wonder how they are doing now.

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That rate is really low...it makes me wonder then if I am wise to send savings back each month. Obviously right now I get a lot of pound for my yen BUT if the pound continues to plummet will my hard earned cash be worth nada??

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117 is a rip, think about changing upon landing at narita.

 

I had a business trip to korea a few weeks ago, and I changed some money in Kansai KIX. Then in Seoul at the baggage carousel there was a cash changer doing yen/won at 10% better rate than I got in KIX. Step outside into the regular airport area and the rates went down to only 5% better than KIX. Don't know if that rule applies to all airports though.

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I still think it is near the bottom now. If it goes under 100yen then its gonna be crazy there, think how much imported goods would cost.

 

Which reminds me, price here in Japan STILL not taking into account the strong yen. Everywhere you look, supermarket, flights, they all carrying on as if yen is still at 250 to the GBP.

 

Example (IKEA website):

 

STENSTORP 54500yen

 

STENSTORP 194.77 GBP

 

Fair does there are local costs etc, but still I expect to see something closer to 125yen/GBP rather than the 220yen/GBP or so they using here.

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I dont expect it to jump immediately, they have to clear their stock and they have local costs (land, staff etc) but I expect to see some reduction coming in. I think J-punters are just too naive.

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Ikea stuff should actually be cheaper in Japan than the UK because the consumption tax is much lower than VAT. I think they set their prices catalogue to catalogue, which means a lag of several months, but there is probably a big Japan premium in there as well. Not that can't buy cheap furniture in Japan elsewhere at Nitori, Noce, etc.

 

Ikea's fitted kitchens are still much cheaper and more flexible than Japanese ones. About 1/4 of the price. The appliances and taps are the same price though, so don't bother with them.

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simple answer = crap!

 

OK against the USD but that's more a function of the USD weakness than any strength in AUD. JPY is overvalued, according to some businessmen over there.

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