在英格蘭，黑色星期三因為投機商打垮英鎊而被人們熟知。實際上那些投機商並沒有打垮英鎊，而是迫使英國政府脫離歐洲歐洲貨幣匯率機制（ERM）。加入歐洲匯率機制是英國政府幫助歐洲經濟統一努力的一部分。然而，在舊的帝國體制下，她試圖想先觀望一段時間。
盡管和歐洲貨幣分離，但是英鎊在20世紀九十年代一直跟隨著德國馬克。不幸的是，這種趕時髦的做法使英鎊低利率高膨脹。英國加入歐洲匯率機制是想維持一英鎊對2.7馬克以上。
這根本是不可能的，因為英國的通貨膨脹率是德國的許多倍。（想了解更多請閱讀<停止趕時髦--他們破產了>。）
德國發現，英鎊帶著固有的潛在問題加入歐洲匯率機制使經濟壓力變得統一，這給作為歐洲貨幣機制核心的德國馬克帶來巨大壓力。歐洲的統一也在意在推行歐元的馬城條約中遭到阻礙。投機商開始關註歐洲匯率機制並好奇固定匯率可以和自然市場力量鬥争多久。問題暴露，英國開始提高匯率吸引人們購買英鎊，但是包括喬治.索羅斯在内的投機商，開始大量的抛售英鎊。
當人為的提升匯率將會遭到數十億損失變得明顯時，英國政府放棄了這一舉動並退出了英國匯率機制。雖然這是一個難以下咽的苦果，但是這次打擊之後英國經濟強制的高利率和通貨膨脹使英鎊有重新變得有力。索羅斯在這次交易中賺取了10億美元並鞏固了他世界第一貨幣投機商的地位。
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.
本文翻譯由兄弟財經提供
文章來源：http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/george-soros-bank-of-england.asp