在英格兰，黑色星期三因为投机商打垮英镑而被人们熟知。实际上那些投机商并没有打垮英镑，而是迫使英国政府脱离欧洲欧洲货币汇率机制（ERM）。加入欧洲汇率机制是英国政府帮助欧洲经济统一努力的一部分。然而，在旧的帝国体制下，她试图想先观望一段时间。

 

尽管和欧洲货币分离，但是英镑在20世纪九十年代一直跟随着德国马克。不幸的是，这种赶时髦的做法使英镑低利率高膨胀。英国加入欧洲汇率机制是想维持一英镑对2.7马克以上。

这根本是不可能的，因为英国的通货膨胀率是德国的许多倍。（想了解更多请阅读<停止赶时髦--他们破产了>。）

 

德国发现，英镑带着固有的潜在问题加入欧洲汇率机制使经济压力变得统一，这给作为欧洲货币机制核心的德国马克带来巨大压力。欧洲的统一也在意在推行欧元的马城条约中遭到阻碍。投机商开始关注欧洲汇率机制并好奇固定汇率可以和自然市场力量斗争多久。问题暴露，英国开始提高汇率吸引人们购买英镑，但是包括乔治.索罗斯在内的投机商，开始大量的抛售英镑。

 

当人为的提升汇率将会遭到数十亿损失变得明显时，英国政府放弃了这一举动并退出了英国汇率机制。虽然这是一个难以下咽的苦果，但是这次打击之后英国经济强制的高利率和通货膨胀使英镑有重新变得有力。索罗斯在这次交易中赚取了10亿美元并巩固了他世界第一货币投机商的地位。

 

How did George Soros "break the Bank of England"?

 

By Andrew Beattie  

 

In Britain, Black Wednesday (September 16, 1992) is known as the day that speculators broke the pound. They didn't actually break it, but they forced the British government to pull it from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Joining the ERM was part of Britain's effort to help along the unification of the European economies. However, in the imperialistic style of old, she had tried to stack the deck. 

 

Although it stood apart from European currencies, the British pound had shadowed the German mark in the period leading up to the 1990s. Unfortunately, the desire to "keep up with the Joneses" left Britain with low interest rates and high inflation. Britain entered the ERM with the express desire to keep its currency above 2.7 marks to the pound. This was fundamentally unsound because Britain's inflation rate was many times that of Germany's. (Keep reading about this in Stop Keeping Up With The Joneses - They're Broke.) 

 

Compounding the underlying problems inherent in the pound's inclusion into the ERM was the economic strain of reunification that Germany found itself under, which put pressure on the mark as the core currency for the ERM. The drive for European unification also hit bumps during the passage of the Maastricht Treaty, which was meant to bring about the euro. Speculators began to eye the ERM and wondered how long fixed exchange rates could fight natural market forces. Spotting the writing on the wall, Britain upped its interest rates to the teens to attract people to the pound, but speculators, George Soros among them, began heavy shorting of the currency. 

 

The British government gave in and withdrew from the ERM as it became clear that it was losing billions trying to buoy its currency artificially. Although it was a bitter pill to swallow, the pound came back stronger because the excess interest and high inflation were forced out of the British economy following the beating. Soros pocketed $1 billion on the deal and cemented his reputation as the premier currency speculator in the world. 

 

本文翻译由兄弟财经提供

文章来源：http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/george-soros-bank-of-england.asp