to think we are talking ourselves deeper into recession ?

[Katiestar]

I am sick of hearing people on the news speculating (and that is all it can be) that this is going to be the worst recession ever.
I mean doesn't it kind of become self fulfilling.the more people spout this sort of thing the less consumer confidence there is and the less people spend and the deeper we go into recession.

Ivykaty - the IMF report was just as speculative as any other report - nobody has a crystal ball. This is not your run-of-the-mill recession that comes round every few years, this is one of a kind and it is impossible to say how it is going go. You just have to batten down the hatches and get on with it.

'The truth and the facts' are their perception of what is happening in this country - the situation is far too complex for them to make stark claims like who is going to feel it worst and for longest. So no I wouldn't have been cross if they had kept their speculation to themselves. I don't know if it will blow over in a few years or take decades to get out of but is sure as hell won't blow over quickly if they continue to talk it up.

We have taken longer to go into recession than the Euro block, the USA and Japan. They are the ones rioting at the moment, not us.

Of course we knew a recession was coming - economies are cyclical. That is the way they are made - it allows them to self-regulate. The speculation only exacerbates the boom and bust.

Sorrento - why would anybody encourage rioting?
How does that help?

I'm not going to be rioting myself, but we should and I hope will protest, peacefully if possible.

I don't think we should be kept from the speculation, I would rather have the views and projections - this gives a reality to what is happening and not a feeling of being kept in the dark, as I think this makes mistrust of officals worse than ever.

As we had such a long run of growth it to some extent has been built on a very precarious footing and so will have much further to fall than other times.

The recession at the end of the 80's and begining of the 90's was due in many ways to house prices and negative equity - we never seem to learn that lending 125% mortgages is not a good idea and that property may go down in price as well as up. To lend money to buy stocks and shares is illegal yet 125% mortgage is not, laws perhaps need to be changed and lessons need to be learnt and practices changed.

For lessons to be learned and practices changed the media need to let public know what excatly is happening. Even if it is hyped up most of the public would know it is hyped, to some decree.

Must go against the thread here and say YABU.

I guess op that you or your husband have not been made redundant?

mine has, as have many of his colleagues (not a banker!). The fact is that the UK economy (unlike the rest of Europe who rent)is driven very much by housing, and since we have stopped buying houses as

1. prices have risen unfeasibly high
2. banks have stopped giving mortgages cos they have finally realised they have too many bad debts..

..our economy is stuffed for a while until it sorts itself out.

Media hyped up rioting doesn't help tho' I agree!

YANBU. The more they hype it up, the less people are willing to spend 'just in case' so the worse it could become.

Many of the predictions are totally overblown. The vast majority are not going to lose their jobs or their homes but many fear it and act accordingly.

Sorrento love your description of urchin/blooming marvellous. I see BM website is back in business in administration

YANBU

The main thing actually damaging consumer confidence (and the stock market) is the news.
Maybe it's the phrase "good news doesn't sell" but as far as I'm concerned it's the media putting people off shopping, not their mortgages or loans.

I agree with you Sunshinepine.

I would expect there are plenty of people are like us - we are probably slightly better off now than we were a year ago, certainly not worse off. Our mortgage has gone down due to interest rate cuts. Fuel costs are going down slowly (the price of petrol particularly), food prices have stopped going up and there are so many special offers that you don't have to pay full price for anything if you don't want to.

I do not underestimate the impact the recession has on those who have lost their jobs, on the numbers of repossessions and business failures or the difficulties there are in obtaining finance for those who need it but I do think that it isn't entirely bad news for everybody but that the media has made us feel that it blanket doom and gloom and that isn't going to help anybody as far as any real recovery is concerned.

Niecie, we are in the same position as you, slightly better off as the mortgage has gone down by £1000 a month over the last year but it all balances on a knife edge, as DH is self employed. Theoretically we should be £3k total a month better off as we have finished paying school fees, but we still seem to live on a huge overdraft.

Luckily when DH works, he is well paid, but when the market floods with unemployed bankers and city workers, his daily rate halves or less, and he is not getting any younger!

i don't think matters were helped by all the doom and gloom about the weather reports on the news, it just makes things worse than they actually are.

While I do also blame the governemnt (it's all very well for Labour to blame Maggie Thatcher for de-regulating in the 80s - but how long have labout been in power for now - and they were happy enough to ride - and take credit for - the growth while the going was good ) - nobody forced individuals to take out 125% mortgages and lots of credit card loans.

The level of personal indebtedness in the UK is much higher than in France and germany - and that is one fo the reasons that we are going to be in the recession longer and deepr.

That and becasue we no longer have any real manufacturing base. For long enough the UK has been depending on the financial sector/City of London and North Sea oil to keep us solvent. Unlike Norway, there is no "oil fund" to form the basis for future industry and to help smooth the peaks and troughs - and the whole "windfall" has been squandered (as A Scot, am I bitter?: you bet I am ). And the now the financial secotr is imploding and it is our children who will have to carry the burden of the debt.

SOciety - and our role as individuals within it - has a lot to answer for.

But I do agree with the OP that we are talking ourselves deeper into recession.

One thing that really annoys me is that people can rack up tens of thousands of pounds worth on debt and then can just declare themselves bankrupt. Ok they'll lose the house but they get council housing

All the while the taxpayer who has been careful with their money has to foot the bill!

Its quite strange how we have the highest levels of personal debt in the world. Not quite sure why the governemnt is responsible for that?

So everyone i know must be basically hocked up to the eyebrows and yet no-one ever mentions it. Happy to discuss house prices, their property portfolio, but not a wisper about all this debt! Its a dirty secret isnt it?

I don't think bankrupcy is a picnic !

and 'Ok you lose your house ...' is a big deal !

I'm not saying it's a picnic, but they are able to write off all the debt leaving the rest of us to pay it off instead.

I have had a 2mth nightmare with Blooming Marvellous. Of my original order 3 items were far to big, and I was told that I would get replacements in the smaller size. Since the middle of Feb my DH and I have been chasing them, and we've been told items were being waited for, then something was damaged, but that last week they had been sent and were on their way. Today we discovered this was a huge web of lies spun by the customer services dept. They didn't have replacement items in stock and were just hoping that we would wait so fobbed us off with lies. We were asked if we wanted to recieve the 3 items in the original size 16 from a depot in Eccles (I live in W.Yorks!)

It's totally unacceptable and besides reporting them to Which? and Watchdog I thought I'd let people know on Mumsnet that this company has no clue how to treat it's customers so please be warned.

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