Black Tuesday?

This is the dreaded day for most Americans - except if you are one of those goody-two-shoe, non-procrastinators out there. That's right. Tax Day. Dun dun dunnnnn....

But there's a different reason we are referring to today as 'Black
Tuesday': the British pound has topped $2 for the first time in 15 years.

The last time this happened was in September of 1992, when currency speculators (particularly George Soros) pushed the pound off of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Mr. Soros did pretty well...making over a $1 billion on this speculation. Not too shabby...

The U.K. Treasure estimated the cost of what was dubbed 'Black Wednesday,' at 3.4 billion. And in the months following that day, the pound fell significantly.

MarketWatch reports that today, the pound climbed up to $2.0074 before eventually settling at $2.0049 on inflation reports. According to Martin Slaney, analyst at Global Forex Trading, "Inflation figures came in significantly higher than virtually everyone in the market was expecting, and a push through $2 was inevitable after figures like this. A [interest rate] rise at the May meeting is now a certainty, and some are factoring in a half-point rise."

Experts are saying that the pound could still have a ways to go - some are even predicting that it could rise to $2.10 by the end of the year.

So, what does our currency counselor, EverBank's Chuck Butler, think about all of this? Well - he's not surprised:

"You know, a couple of years ago, I was receiving hate mail daily. Some awful things were said to me, about me, and so on... All because the dollar had taken a technical, or mid-weak dollar trend, pause. Today, I feel vindicated. I said two years ago that the pound sterling would get to 2... And today, it's there!"

Bill Bonner is the President of Agora Publishing. For more on Bill Bonner, visit The Daily Reckoning.