Six Days in September

Meer over het boek

Britain entered the European exchange rate mechanism ERM in desperation, left in disgrace and prospered thereafter - a presaging the 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Britain's 1990 entry was accompanied by a secret Bank of England warning of future trouble. On leaving in 1992, Prime Minister John Major insisted on time-wasting consultation that led to exhaustion of Britain's reserves. Helmut Schlesinger, Bundesbank president in 1992, says in the book he 'regrets to this day' how his remarks on currencies helped precipitate the run on the pound. The story of 'Black Wednesday' - 16 September 1992, when Britain was forced to withdraw sterling from the exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System - is one of the most gripping in modern politics and economics. Six Days in September - focusing on the period between Friday 11 and Wednesday 16 September - describes a spell of drama seldom seen in peacetime. For Britain, the ERM crisis constituted a critical inflection point that can be regarded as "the first Brexit". With the march of the hedge funds against the pound, George Soros and his lead manager Stanley Druckenmiller became "The men who broke the Bank of England", making more than $1 billion in profits