Talk:Five economic tests

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Some cynics suggest that the five tests are really:

• Can the goverment win a referendum?
• Can the goverment win a referendum?
• Can the goverment win a referendum?
• Can the goverment win a referendum?
• Can the goverment win a referendum?

JS.Farrar 20:28, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps, but that counts as speculation, so is out of order. Unless someone really notable said it,like Mervyn King. --Red King 21:17, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

I think perhaps we might comment that it is a commonly held belief both among politicians and the public that the tests are met or fail to be met principally on whether Gordon Brown wants that to be met. That is to say the tests have sufficient leeway that they can be met or failed largely by selective use of the same data. Alci12 11:41, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Porvided that you add it under a heading such as "Press Comment", then yes. Wiki shouldn't speculate itself, but it can certainly report such speculation provided that it wasn't just some bloke down the pub! In this case, I suspect that it wouldn't be hard to find a source to cite if anyone wanted to challenge. --Red King 17:01, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

How about this [[1]]Alci12 11:55, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Explaination

What is meant by the Treasury's answer to question 4; "The City would benefit from Eurozone membership." - what City is being refered to here? Is it London, and if so, wouldnt that mean that a potential decision would act in the interest of a specific regional group (ie, the city of London), potentially at the detriment of the UK as a whole? Or should "City" be merely read as "Nation"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.7.210.43 (talk • contribs)

"City" refers to the London Stock Exchange in this context, I believe; it was either that, or the inner city's vendors and businesses. —Nightstallion (?) ^{Seen this already?} 19:30, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

According to The City

"..."The City" is not just a common name for the City of London, but is also sometimes used as a for the financial entities based there, similar to the way "Wall Street" and "Bay Street" sometimes refer to U.S. and Canadian financial markets."

also see City of London --Skoorb 12:13, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

I've linked this in the article. Tip for the day: "A question on the Talk: page is often an indication of room for improvement in the article." jnestorius^(talk) 01:47, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Structural differences

One of the main underlying issues that stand in the way of monetary union is the large structural difference between the UK housing market and those of continental Europe. Historically, because of the British tradition of home ownership, as opposed to home rental, and the scarcity of fixed-rate mortgages to finance home purchases (itself a legacy of past monetary instability), the average Briton carries a substantial volume of variable-rate debt. This makes British consumer spending far more sensitive to prevailing interest rates than is the case in the rest of Europe, thus making the British economy extremely vulnerable to sub-optimal interest rates. Critics have argued that until this structural difference is resolved, joining the Euro would be disastrous for the UK.

This argument doesn't make sense. There are no "large structural difference between the UK housing market and those of the continental Europe". In Spain, the tradition is also home ownership, and variable rate mortgages. However since Spain has adopted the Euro, it has experienced an unprecedented growth.--193.62.17.24 (talk) 00:47, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Slovenia have higher levels of home ownership and far from being a "tradition" The UK's high level is a fairly recent phenomenon. 86.45.223.115 (talk) 16:46, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Please read - MacLennan, D., Muellbauer, J. and Stephens, M. (1998), ‘Asymmetries in housing and financial market institutions and EMU’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 14/3, pp. 54–80. This dicuses the issue in detail and concludes in favour of the opinion stated —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.81.1.4 (talk) 13:03, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree, there are no "large structural difference between the UK housing market and those of the continental Europe". Spain, Norway, The Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, Austria and Hungary all have significantly higher levels of home ownership than the UK. We are approximately at the AVERAGE level of home ownership in Europe. Data from "Importance of government policies for home ownership rates", available here: http://www.infra.kth.se/BYFA/publikationer/engelskaUppsatserOchRapporter/54.pdf. I suggest that the last paragraph of the article is opinionated and should be removed. --138.37.81.69 (talk) 11:59, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

I assume that what matters to the UK is the situation in the eurozone. Other areas are irrelevant, since they have little effect on the euro currency. So 3 of the 7 countries are irrelevant for the moment, since they currently use other currencies. I do agree that a comment on this needs to be added, but if non-eurozone countries are mentioned, it ought to be pointed out specifically that they are outside the eurozone at least for the moment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.247.11.156 (talk) 22:46, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Britain (69%) is in the middle of the field when it comes to home ownership. Germany and Sweden are the lowest at 42% while Hungary (92%) and Spain (85%) are the highest. Martinvl (talk) 13:56, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that supports the argument that the text is POV and should be deleted. I'll do so if not already done. --Red King (talk) 22:20, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

References

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