World markets

[JohnLIreland]

I've not been paying attention. The dollars coming down cos their markets slowing down so they've dropped interest rates to encourage spending. The Euro's up 'cos they've maintained their interest rates. Why's the pound dropping?

[Goldenballs]

The pound has dropped in value for many reasons, one of the primary ones being that our economy and policies are more closely linked to the weakened US than that of our Euro cousins - in effect we are tarred with the same brush.

One of the strengths of the Euro is that it is used by so many countries - in effect this cushions the negative effect of any one country suffering financial crises, as they are propped up by the stability of the others.

In addition, it is widely accepted that the UK housing market is more open to a crash than many others (along with France) - the March 2008 housing results this week sent major jitters into the currency market, and the GBP lost over 1% of its value on that piece of news alone. Lending in the UK has been far looser than in most countries (except the US), and there is very much the feeling around that the house of cards is about to collapse in a big way.

Buying CHF (Swiss francs) is probably your best bet right now, along with gold and silver.