Things Aren't Looking Great for the UK

Things are definitely heating up in the global financial system. In this episode we focus on the UK currency flash crash but I also touch on other global risk. Hope everyone out there stays safe. Also, thanks for watching.

As a British 29-year-old who rents: my future is more or less ruined. I can't afford to have children, can't afford to put the heating on, can't afford to visit my parents 3 hours away without extensive budgeting for petrol... my husband and I are literally working to survive. As a child, I was taught that if you work hard in school and do your best at work, you can at least expect a decent future with the ability to afford a small, modest home, a kid or two, and perhaps the odd holiday every few years. Might not be luxury, but it would be enough to be content & find purpose.
But now, even with two of us working FULL TIME jobs, we're spending the best hours of our days sat staring at a screen, only to freeze whilst we work, eat the same basic ass food every day (if we eat at all) and can barely leave the house because every single penny is needed for the bills. There's nothing to look forward to, nothing to wake up for every day except for a struggle and to listen to what new crap the government has decided to do or not do. I can't even apply for benefits because my husband is not a UK citizen and therefore unable to access any financial assistance.
I don't even know why I bother. Most days I just hope that when I go to bed, I don't wake up again because this is an absolutely pointless existence.

"Imagine losing five percent of your savings overnight"

Me, an Argentinian: I'd call them lucky.

As a friendly reminder, don't trust any politician that claims inflation not to be a problem, they're probably after your money.

I'm a working class British guy. The mood is apathy and distrust in the entire system. The people I'm close to were not surprised and are pretty certain they did it on purpose. They're not sure if the world governments are incompetent or evil but they think both is a very good assumption. The falling pound rarely comes up in conversation, they're more concerned about the price for heating their homes and inflation.

The majority of politicians in the UK are wealthy, attended private schools and have absolutely no idea what life is like for normal people. They are so out of touch that it is scary!

"Imagine losing 5% of your savings overnight."

This happens to me a few times a month. I call it grocery day.

You know you’re in trouble when a Cold Fusion video comes out about your country

Minor detail: government bonds in the UK are 'Gilts' not 'Guilts' due to the certificates being traditionally edged with gilt to distinguish them from commercial bonds. That's not to say that successive governments aren't guilty as hell for getting us so far into debt.

A round of applaud for the great analysis and breakdown of personal perspective. The market circumstances are driving me insane, my portfolio has lost almost $18500 this month alone, my earnings are tanking, and I can't see how my retirement will go smoothly when I can't even increase my stagnating reserve. I wonder whether those who lived through the 2008 crash had it easier.

I’m from the UK, and just moved out for the first time for work. This is literally the worst timing ever for me, and because I started work in middle of the month, I have very little money for food right now after rent and utilities. I’m young, healthy and a single person, I couldn’t even imagine how bad it is for parents, carers and people who are disabled, especially as winter sets it. I just hope it’s a mild winter this year. Also, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems supermarkets have less of a reduced section now? I assume this is because of inflation, but it really sucks for people on a budget like me, I just want some meat to eat :(

I'm in the UK and we have just literally completed on a re-mortgage as our current fixed deal was expiring. This morning we got a letter through the door from our old lender (must have been sent out early and just arrived) stating that the interest rate was rising from 1 to 5% which would mean an additional £500 a month.

Even though we were savvy enough to have avoided this surprise hike by simply not allowing ourselves to end up on a tracker mortgage it still made me feel a little sick. If we were caught out, not only would we be paying more for generally everything, including our energy bills which doubled back in May, but an extra 500 a month on top would have been a disaster. Not only did I feel a little sick for what could have been for us, there will be so many homeowners out there who were already on the ropes and this would have blindsided them. I fear for so many people who will suffer as a result of this. Renters will feel it too as landlords will further hike up rents to cover their mortgages on the properties. The situation is not a good one.

well my father used to say always invest in land for saving. He knew this would happen. all the best to uk
--- from India.... lets hope global economy stabilizes soon....

As a UK resident, I wanted to pick up on one point. Liz Truss wasn't really elected, she was chosen by the Conservatives as their new leader, after they forced out Boris Johnson. Which makes the mess that she's causing even worse.

I think you deserve praise
Normally, I play your videos as a podcast, but for some reason I watched this one. The production quality is gorgeous, the clips used and edited in are perfect and fit very well

Taking the time to cater for those who watch the videos too goes a long way, even if some don't actually watch the video, you've still catered for those that do.. Props!
Good, clear and calm voice aswell, not overly loud or shouty just makes your content so nice to watch and/or listen

As a London based estate agent I believe the worst is yet to come. Buyers that are currently going through the process will remain in place because of their already agreed fixed rate, but if the interest rates continue to rise there will be very few buyers looking to purchase. Prices have already begun to fall based on lack of demand. One positive spin is that it is all relative, if you sell for less you are likely to buy for less, but this all hinges on whether first time buyers are willing to commit to a purchase. In the absence of them we have to rely on foreign investors.

The scary thing is in the video they said that 40% of mortgages in the UK are interest-only ARM loans. In the US they're currently about 4.5% of all mortgage loans.

In 2007 they were about 30-35% of the loans in the US. Remember 2008?

No matter how you slice it, having nearly half of a country's mortgages able to shoot up to levels that might be unaffordable is a catastrophe waiting to happen. And as you know, the Fed and Central banks are raising interest rates to curb inflation.

As a UK resident: the problem to me is that for all the talk of "Getting Britain Moving" we have wasted public money in vanity projects that have either been useless, never completed, were found to be rotten with corruption or worse. We are a small island nation sitting apart from the rest of Europe now and the hope was that we were somehow going to find our feet in the world.

Our most profitable export is our heritage and the name that goes with it: you can be anyone from anywhere and as long as you have the money and the people in the right places we'll happily take that money and allow you the security and authority that a British front can offer. You can be a Russian Oligarch who has been implicated in murders and blackmail operations, but if you rub the right shoulders you can live comfortably, tax free and even have a British company to bank roll international loans and no one ever need know that your bloody hands are on the paperwork.

For our size we have a lot of sway in the world because we're not a young nation, we're old, historically we've made more mistakes than most countries and at one point we did have the world's largest Empire. The reality is Britain doesn't do much, outside aircraft manufacturing we're more of a service country than a physical export country.

Liz Truss' plan appears to be to make us competitive in the area of corporate and high-earner tax rates. Deposit your money here and we won't tax you and hopefully you'll stick around long enough to pay it back through good ol' trickle down economics. As CasetteBoy put it the only thing trickling down is the piss their taking.

As a UK hotel business owner during the health crisis, I was forced to take out a 9% CBILS loan to repay my “stalled” 3.5% repayment loan or lose my business. The deal ends in Dec 22, best rate is 7% plus £50K of fees. Even with FREE GAS and ELECTRICITY my business is done and so are many others.

As a British person in the UK right now, I can say things really don't feel great in the UK right now either. Lots of people are struggling and worrying how to get through the winter. Literally everyone I know thinks the government is incompetent and wants to get rid of them (although I live in North London which is quite a Labour stronghold), Liz Truss's approval is already as bad as Boris Johnson's was. Things are bleak.

I remember several years ago when my mortgage bank called to congratulate me with an open line of credit for twice the amount of the purchase price of my home. “Think of all the things I could do with this amount of money.” Felt like a scam to me. I told them to bug off 😆