Question: Shortly before the UK devalued the pound sterling in 1968, Prime Minister Harold Wilson was heard to remark that the first time a Labour prime minister devalued the pound, the party was out of power for 14 years, and the second time a Labour prime minister devalued the pound, the party was out of power for 13 years. If he were to devalue the pound a third time, he pontificated, ‘‘there would be no more Labour Party.'' Even allowing for the normal amount of vacuity in any such political proclamation, what did Wilson mean? Why was he wrong economically, and why was he wrong politically? (After being defeated by Ted Heath in 1970, Wilson returned as prime minister in 1974.)