October 16, 2007 (LPAC)--The HSBC [HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corporation] recently issued a report, entitled "Kingdom Under Siege" which is part of the British effort to push the dollar deeper into collapse. The report asserts, "There is no doubt the market has moved into dollar hating territory and there are very good reasons for this. It is no longer the sole global price setter for commodities. The role of the U.S. dollar as an anchor currency is being eroded." After the conclusion about the dollar had been printed in publications, such as the London Telegraph, the report's author, in discussion with EIR Oct. 16, "tempered" this remark, saying that the dollar's situation can improve in coming months.

The report more accurately reviews the potential for a drop in the pound sterling. The report's author said that 4 trillion pounds sterling ($8 trillion) in "hot money" is invested in short-term interest-bearing instruments in Britain, holding the pound up, some of which hot money will flee Britain. This will cause the pound to fall from $2.04 to $1.72 over the next 18 months, he said, though in reality the fall could be steeper. He sees the trigger for the pound's fall, in that investors are "losing confidence in sterling-associated mechanisms," vividly typified in the Northern Rock collapse.