[BITList] Soros sees risk of Britain needing IMF bailout

[John Feltham]

We've come a long way since Britannia ruled the waves



http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090328/bs_afp/financeeconomybritainsoros/print

Soros sees risk of Britain needing IMF bailout
Sat Mar 28, 8:01 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros said on  
Saturday that it is "conceivable" that Britain would have to resort to  
a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"It's conceivable," Soros said in an interview with The Times. "You  
have a problem that the banking system is bigger than the economy...  
so for Britain to absorb it alone would really pile up the debt."

Soros said that "if the banking system continued to collapse, it's (an  
IMF bailout) a possibility but it's not a likelihood."

The man who made one billion dollars on short-selling sterling on  
'Black Wednesday' in 1992 described the current recession as a "once- 
in-a-lifetime event", particularly in Britain.

"This is a crisis unlike any other. It's a total collapse of the  
financial system with tremendous implications for everyday life.

"On previous occasions when you had a crisis that was threatening the  
system the authorities intervened and did whatever was necessary to  
protect the system. This time they failed."

He said he feared the problem in Britain, with its huge financial and  
banking interests, could be greater than in the United States.

"American memory is seared by the Depression, the German memory is  
seared by hyperinflation but Britain has a pretty serious problem in  
many ways worse than America because the financial sector looms bigger  
and the overvaluation of real estate is bigger than in America."

Soros said the G20 summit in London next week was the world's last  
chance to avert economic disaster, but he was not optimistic of a  
breakthrough in efforts to spur the global economy into recovery.

"The odds would favour that it fails because there are such  
differences of opinion. It's difficult enough to get it right in your  
own country let alone with 20 governments coming together, but if it's  
a failure I think then the global financial and trading system falls  
apart," he said.

"It's really a make-or-break occasion. That's why it's so important."

Increasing IMF funding to allow it to intervene to help troubled  
economies is one of the main issues on the G20 agenda.






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