Britons living in Bulgaria. Guide to Bulgaria, Sofia and Varna

The credit crisis hits home - mine - Electric New Paper

The credit crisis hits home - mine Electric New Paper, Singapore - Oct 3, 2008 Like millions of Britons, I am half Irish, so it seemed obvious to my wife and me to move to Ireland, where our family live. ...

The credit crisis hits home - mine - Electric New Paper FINANCIAL FAMINE: Statues depicting the 19th century Irish famine at a quay in Dublin's financial district. Ireland's government yesterday passed a controversial emergency law guaranteeing bank deposits in the country's six main banks.PICTURE: AP Well, that's what is happening to me. It all started back in 1999, when I retired (very) early as editor of a big daily paper in England in order to do 'real' journalism and consultancy. Like millions of Britons, I am half Irish, so it seemed obvious to my wife and me to move to Ireland, where our family live. We sold our house in Leicestershire when property values were high and found our dream home beside the Atlantic for what seemed to be an absurdly low price. For most of the subsequent years, the British pound was riding high compared with the slowly developing euro. So my pension and fees made everything seem relatively cheap. The house doubled in value over a few years and we loved feeling almost well-off. But in the last couple of years, the roles were reversed. The bad news was that the pound was falling in value against the newly successful euro, which was now becoming a true alternative to the Almighty Dollar. The tide of bargain-hunters from Britain and America turned. No longer did the Irish shops and services seem cheap. In fact, the Irish took to shopping across the open border with the UK province of Northern Ireland. Travel companies and Ryanair, the cut-price airline, are offering shopping trips to London and provincial cities. Last Christmas, bargain-hunters brandishing the powerful euro swooped on the big stores of New York. But due to the chaos in the world financial markets, house prices have slumped here in Ireland, the first European country to fall into recession. No doubt shop prices will fall here, but while we are waiting, our pounds are worth less and less. For instance, two days ago, £pounds;100 will buy 130.61 euros. Today its value has dropped by 40 euro cents. My friend Bob Wilson, a Californian who is settled happily here, is suffering even worse. His US dollar income has been hit badly. The property developers are frantic to sell homes they built optimistically 'on spec'. One in my corner of Ireland is offering 32,000 euros ($64,000) cash-back to anyone who will buy charming homes which will have been snapped up during the good times. Flats for free Another is offering a free apartment in Bulgaria with every house sold in Ireland. Hmm, not such a bargain since properties there and in most other holiday-home countries are fetching next to nothing in these uncertain times. If we sold up now, we will get less than 90 per cent of what the house was valued at last year. The Eurozone is suffering too, though its 27 countries are suffering in different ways, from inflation to recession. Their interest rates are set - amazingly on a 'one size fits all' basis - by its central bank. Britain, Sweden and nine others which stuck stubbornly to their own currencies, with the flexibility to set their own interest rates, might even now be reconsidering their position. So what does the Stack family and millions like us do to ride out the financial storm that is raging across the Atlantic? Unlike the casualties of the recession, especially in the building trades, who are now collecting their unemployment benefit from the state, we are not yet in crisis mode. My own forecast is that the euro is underpinned by so many different economies, that it will recover, probably quite rapidly. I have faith in the pound because Britain's mastery of finance and its innovative industry will prevail. But while we are waiting, we have to grin if we can and bear it because we must.