to want everyone to shut the feck up already about a recession as we seem to be talking ourselves into one?

[Oliveoil]

AND I want to sell my house and need my equity to emigrate?

so piss off everyone in the media

and piss off everyone basically

apart from my first time cash buyer [dreams]

woo hoo - some sense! i agree completely and was almost swearing at the telly the other morning when they showed the paper headlines "house prices crash" "food prices soar"

what they should really be showing repeatedly is the show the bbc did on why all this is happening (Super Rich: the Greed Game - there's a blog about it here) - ie. the recklessness of the financial markets. the rampant, naked greed of it all is enough to make your hair curl

while we all sit here talking ourselves into recession, venture capitalists are sunning themselves in Barbados, sitting on the obscene amounts of money they have taken out of the banking system, waiting to buy houses, businesses, anything at knock down prices

these are the people we should be getting annoyed at - and the media for not highlighting what's really going on

The panic over house price crashes needs looking at if you ask me. There is a sort of collective insanity in our society - we hate inflation except on this one major asset when we want the increases in double digits.

Quite a worry when there is talk of 40,000 people losing their banking jobs... and this will have a knock on effect on related industries...

Is the BBC that produced Super Rich not part of the media? Have the campaigns to make non-doms - many of whom work in finance - pay more tax not been orchestrated by the media? In what way hasn't the media highlighted the gulf between rich and poor - and in no area more than in housing - over the past few years?

the media has highlighted the gulf between rich and poor, but in a very simplistic way - we get all riled about the wrong thing. oooh - house prices. duck and cover everyone

but there are people responsible for this who are not and never will be held to account. traders, venture capitalists etc who take massive risks, reap the rewards personally, but leave the failures for the global banking system (and ultimately all of us) to pick up.

i don't ever see negative stories about these people or their frankly immoral dealings in the mainstream media. but they are DIRECTLY responsible - credit crunches don't make themselves...

There are loads of stories about smash and grab venture capitalists, ridiculous City bonuses and general hedge fund excess. The newspapers' finance sections in particular have been reporting on little else for past 18 months since 2007 ludicrous bonus bonanza.

Perhaps the focus should be on the whys and not the whats - the regulatory bodies have done f all to prevent these hedge funds and other venture capitalists exploiting loopholes in the market..

Their responses is to have some in-house investigation...

They run with the hares and hunt with the hounds...

Don't think the world economy is driven by the media.

frogs! Not unless you live in Somerset. Otherwise he'd have to camp in your bath

but the media influences people's perceptions 'v' the reality and they do love scaremongering. So in Olive's case people are put-off buying an house etc...

And the reality is?

As a recession, a true recession, is a combination of factors, some of which are beyond control, it's impossible to talk yourself into one.

Yes, there is scaremongering, but as a macroeconomic phenomemon, a few news articles don't trigger one off.

People are put off buying a house mostly because they cannot afford the move - including not being able to secure the money they need from a bank - more so than new reports.

bloomin media hyping it up and making it worse than it really is. Creates a self fulfilling prophecy - 'house pricing are crashing' so no-one buys/sells etc etc'.GMTV are the worst.

it's not really scaremongering, though. banks loaned irresponsibly. many are now no longer doing that as frequently.

it has a knockon affect on prices.

similarly, the number of first-time buyers is at a record low.

again, this affects the market.

additionally, inflation is rising. again, this affects how much money people have to spend on many things, including houses.

Of course the good thing about a recession is that we will see all those dimwits on 'Property Ladder' finally get their comeuppance. Bet Ms Beaney cannot wait....

Beeny is girding her norks for a mistressful dressing-down.

She'll probably just do programmes about how to sell in a recession.

only read op. Yes, I think we are talking ourselves into one too. What's wrong with finance people that they panic so much

You are right and you know you are

Who is right? Op? Where have you swooped in from, quatt?

Oh hi Pointy. I was agreeing with the OP. Economic confidence is like believing in fairies. Stop believing in the economy and everything goes pear-shaped.

you talk sense, quatt

i'm a bit worried that Gordon is asking the banks for advice. Didn't he used to be Chancellor of the Exchequer?

Reccessions are manipulated in order to gain control of populations. Gov's don't like people getting to wealthy as they become a threat to those in power, people with money can change things. I would fasten your seat belts as things are going to get a whole load worse.

Gosh Beeper, that's a point of view. So you think that Governments engineer recessions? That seems a tad unlikely to me because (as Gordon will soon find out) Governments get voted out pdq in recessions.

Also I don't believe that recessions damage wealthy people - the wealthy can survive - it's the people who have to earn their livings and the middle income families and the poor who suffer.

Finally I really don't think we are going to have that hard a time of it - unless we talk ourselves into it of course ...