[milkpowder]

In the light of recent events (insane job cuts, further nationalisation of the banking sector), the UK seems to be really hurting a lot from the recession. Experts have given a rather bleak commentary on the future of the economy. The pound is probably going to drop further given the rather endemic lack of confidence. As a university student with funds coming from outside of the UK, I am fortunate to have dodged the bulk of this slump. My parents suffered relatively small losses, despite the Hong Kong economy being one of the first to be in a "technical recession". Fortunately, HK as a whole didn't get hit as hard (vs China, UK, US, Iceland, etc). It has come to the point where I'm sick and tired of hearing about "recession", "economic downturn", "credit crunch", "job cuts", "depression" being mentioned, day in and day out, on national television. The VAT cuts did nothing but put more debt on the shoulders of generations to come... I reckon a lot of people are living in denial, or at least putting on a good face in public, but in reality hurting inside. There's just not much one can do, but to hope for things to be better in two-three years time. How are people coping?

I just wish everyone all the best.

 

[Quaddy]

agreed, hard time here indeed, i am now unemployed after redundancy and although mortgage has come down tremendously inline with the rate, this is a short term phenomenon i am sure.

this is a big old recesssion and will continue for many years, better get used to being sick and tired of hearing it now!

i have to laugh when gordon brown says it all emanated from america, what tosh! - his own loose and knowing regulations simply allowed our UK banks to dip into the toxic mortgage/reposession debts overseas to get rich quick. and now they got their hands burnt they blame it on global issues and bankers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the Financial Services Authority is a joke in this country they were either asleep on the job or complicit to the greed, either way they should all be fired.

 

[evilking]

If you haven't been laid off (hurray for the eternal stream of sick people...) then really the recession doesn't mean much. I guess I'm just lucky. When hospitals start asking for bail-outs then I'll pay more attention...

EK

 

[Al4x]

so far better than before, the division of the company i work for is unaffected,

and petrol is cheaper as well as prices of things so yeah its actually benefiting me so far

however when we have to py back all this debt that labour is building up.....

i totally agree with the tories proposition

 

[mark2410]

tbh the whole things is a croc, the economys were talked into recession and into problems. stocks and houses have value because people believe they and when they media talks up the end of civilization people panic so the values plummet, so people stop spending, then shops start going bust because people arent buying, then people start loosing jobs.

frankly i do think people deserve what happens, when so many were driving house prices into the absurd buying to let trying to make as much money as they could off others.

also im quite sure the whole thing could be sorted in the uk if the gov went on a huge building boom, instead of throwing money into banks for the same to hapen again. set a legal cap of 3times salary on mortgages and build lots of houseing. housing shortages and rediculously inflated house prices are where this all came from

edit: btw as a student it hasnt affected me or anyone else i know in a negative way

 

[Al4x]

the media is responsible for a lot of stoking of the fire.

i think the mortgage cap is a good idea, basically people have been greedy and bought things they cant pay for, and he government is now doing the same with all this debt build up, the VAT cut? absolutl absurd! doesnt affect the essentials, perhaps a petrol cut wouldve been better?

think we should stop spending money as a country, cause we cant afford it!

people buying things like cars/conservatories.. thats the worst dont buy luxries if you cant afford them! makes me cross

 

[mark2410]

nooo we shouldnt stop spending, thats what causes the problem,we actually need to spend more. saving takes money out of the economy and makes things worse, what we need to stop is artificially inflating house values. part of the problem just now is that paying mortgages they cant really afford and cant spend money of anything else or are choosing not to out of fear something bad will happen.

 

[mrarroyo]

It is sad all over, I do hope it can be turned around soon. At the end of the day the greed and "get rich quick" mentality has a lot to answer for.

 

[IceClass]

Well, although I haven't lived full time in the UK for over twenty years, I still have a lot of my investments tied up in UK real estate.
When all is said and done I'll be lucky to have taken a 30% bath.

 

[milkpowder]

[rant]

mark2410 'n Al4x, I totally agree. Just before everything went down the drain, BBC 24 news kept talking down the economy (and still do). The word "recession" or phrase "danger of recession" kept cropping up. Then when we were really heading for recession, they kept saying "impending recession" like every 15 minutes. I mean for ****'s sake, we get it already. Now that we're in recession, they're like "impending depression". Wait, hold on, could you repeat that again 10 minutes later? It takes something extraordinarily horrible (eg plane crash in New York, Israel/Hamas conflict), or something super interesting (eg Obama inauguration) to divert 90% of the BBC's attention to something that doesn't have to do with money. Guess where the remaining 10% goes? You guessed it... the news ticker at the bottom of the screen with "breaking news" of government aid packages, banks losing catastrophic sums of money, companies cutting several hundreds, etc.

[/rant]


What everyone should do is switch off the tele. Stop reading proper newspapers. Hide all your stocks underneath your bed. Live life normally and enjoy the massive discounts. Savour it while you can. Assuming you keep your job and meet your payments, all should be well.

IceClass, I'm no expert, but the housing market should recover, no? I wonder whether we will return to the same ridiculous, hyper-inflated prices of 2006-2007...

 

[evilking]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IceClass /img/forum/go_quote.gif When all is said and done I'll be lucky to have taken a 30% bath.

Yes, a 30% bath...

EK

 

[pcf]

The recession is really serious here and it's the same in UK. It will affect everyone. not just the greedy property developers.
Here in USA, they are saying this recession is the same or worse than the great depression. Things will carry on going downhill for the next few years and might take up to 10 years to recover. Big retail stores are closing down (Mervyns, Circus City etc.)HP had about 40.000 layoffs last year worldwide. Carry on spending the same way as before is not recommended, now is the time to think about putting money aside for emergency fund.
I grew up in Hong Kong and lived in London for 20 years before I came there so I went through a few recessions and housing markets slumps in my time. This one is bigger than all of them. It might not affect you now but it's good to be aware of that.
Good luck to everyone but for god sake don't take this lightly.

-Paul

 

[amphead]

Quote:

the economys were talked into recession and into problems.

Appearance is reality. Unfortunately the way the market is portrayed carries more weight than underlying fundamentals. It's a very shallow mechanism for such an important part of the economic outlook.

 

[Audio-Omega]

Things aren't looking too good either in Australia.

 

[mark2410]

most of the shops that have gone bust i think were heading for it anyway. internet sales have stolen thier business and they didint get people will pay more only if they get beter service. and if your product is generic like cd's then cost become most important (oh and and giving urself the most ridiculous name ever doesnt help, i mean who the hell thought zavi was a good name?!!?!?!?)