1976 sterling crisis

The 1976 sterling crisis was a financial event in the United Kingdom. At that time, the British government was running a big budget deficit, which meant that it had more money going out than it was taking in from taxes and other sources. This caused the currency (the pound) to become devalued and not have as much buying power compared to other currencies. The government took a number of steps to try to fix the problem, like increasing taxes, cutting back on public spending, and selling some of their gold reserves. Despite these efforts, the currency continued to decline and eventually, the government gave up and allowed the pound to "float" or change value freely on the international market. All of this caused a lot of uncertainty and panic in the UK and lead to a temporary but severe drop in the value of the pound.