Hey Guv can you lend us a fiver?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

According to the Bank for International Settlements,[3] as of April 2010, average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion, a growth of approximately 20% over the $3.21 trillion daily volume as of April 2007. Some firms specializing on foreign exchange market had put the average daily turnover in excess of US$4 trillion.[4]

The $3.98 trillion break-down is as follows:

$1.490 trillion in spot transactions
$475 billion in outright forwards
$1.765 trillion in foreign exchange swaps
$43 billion currency swaps
$207 billion in options and other products

from what i can gather annual world trade is somewhere around 15 to 20 trillion $, so the currency markets turnover annual global trade about every five days .... this is all gambling folks and untaxed

About 70% to 90%[citation needed] of the foreign exchange transactions are speculative. In other words, the person or institution that bought or sold the currency has no plan to actually take delivery of the currency in the end; rather, they were solely speculating on the movement of that particular currency. Hedge funds have gained a reputation for aggressive currency speculation since 1996.

the Brit banks have some fifth of this market by value and the City as a whole undoubtedly more ...

lend us a fiver ....

[greenilex]

How much of this "growth" is a result of quantitative easing, aka printing money?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i am sure it helped as has the low rate at which banks can borrow .....

there is a $3 trillion a day gambling habit, the biggest casino in the solar system ...unregulated and untaxed ....

[2LO]

i am sure it helped as has the low rate at which banks can borrow .....

Call me naive, but just who do banks borrow from? For that matter, who actually gets the interest the country is apparently paying out?

I probably do know, but I'm in denial.

[Serial_Apologist]

Call me naive, but just who do banks borrow from? For that matter, who actually gets the interest the country is apparently paying out?

I probably do know, but I'm in denial.

They borrow from each other, having first printed the readies.

[vinteuil]

It is a marvellous bit of magic. I go into a bank and deposit £100. I can then go away and 'spend' that £100 (writing cheques etc.) - and the bank also can 'spend' the same £100 by investing it somewhere else. So where there was £100 there is now £200. Just like that... But the magic only works if we all believe it and no-one starts getting too worried....

[teamsaint]

Call me naive, but just who do banks borrow from? For that matter, who actually gets the interest the country is apparently paying out?

I probably do know, but I'm in denial.

you need to watch "Zeitgeist", i suggest.
while internet access is still available to us all.

[french frank]

It is a marvellous bit of magic. I go into a bank and deposit £100. I can then go away and 'spend' that £100 (writing cheques etc.) - and the bank also can 'spend' the same £100 by investing it somewhere else. So where there was £100 there is now £200. Just like that... But the magic only works if we all believe it and no-one starts getting too worried....

Hard times, everyone in debt, everyone living on credit.

A German tourist arrives in town, goes to the local hotel and puts down a €100 note as a deposit on a room. He tells the hotel owner he wants to look at the rooms to see which one he'll take.

The owner directs him upstairs and when the tourist disappears he grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay off his butcher.

The butcher takes the €100 note and goes off to repay the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and sets off to pay the feed supplier who takes the €100 note and goes to the pub to settle his drinks tab. The publican surreptitiously slips the money along the counter to the local lady of the night, and she rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.

At this point the tourist reappears, says he doesn't like any of the rooms, picks up the €100 note and drives off.

This is supposed to be how a bail-out works.

[Lateralthinking1]

What would happen to the national economy if a hundred people who all had properties of similar value decided to swap with each other, selling them privately, but advertising the process everywhere, at a price of either £1 or £1 million each but not actually paying anything themselves because all the houses were on the market at the same price as each other?

[Lateralthinking1]

.....also why on earth doesn't everyone remove all their money now from every bank and building society except mutuals and put it into mutuals and national savings? There is hardly any difference in the savings interest rates and we will never again have such an opportunity to annihilate the private banking sector.

[french frank]

.....also why on earth doesn't everyone remove all their money now from every bank and building society except mutuals and put it into mutuals and national savings? There is hardly any difference in the savings interest rates and we will never again have such an opportunity to annihilate the private banking sector.

Where would the credit come from that businesses need to invest, expand and provide jobs?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

let us assume the national debt is some £2.5 trillion £ and £1 = $1.65

what rate of taxation on the 20% share of brit banks in forex gambling will repay the debt in three months if the tank leaks at a rate of 2 litres per hour on Thursdays but 1.7 litres per hour on other weekdays but does not leak on Sunday even though the gambling is 24/7/365 .... and the second lorry travels at 35 kph ...

[Lateralthinking1]

Calum - No, I don't know the answer, but I identify closely with your icon, whatever it is. (A night for showing my ignorance!).

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

er hedge funds, er insider trading, not me guv we're honest brokers innit ....

untaxed unlicensed unregulated crooks handling $3.9 trillion a day .... you couldn't make it up no one would believe it ....

[LateralT it is an album cover for Billie Holiday by David Stone Martin]

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

austerity will bite

but not the rich

the problem with the growing inequality in the Anglo worlds [Australia, Canada NZ UK USA] is that it is ignored

it is an unmitigated disaster that not many people are aware of

in terms of our economy society and culture it means decades of stagnation ... poorer health and education etc ...

well since yesterday that is another $4 trillion over the exchanges eh .....