Are we all doomed?

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Well,that's it really...

Watching the news over the last few weeks and days I dont see that this economic crisis is anywhere near ending and no one seems to have any answers.

I feel a little nervous, as I doubt it will be the rich that bear the brunt.

Are we all doomed?

Possibly, yes. And here is a great video to explain why - you will laugh through your tears, I promise

Yep we are. It will be far worse for our children as well.

If Ds is still in the country in his 20's I recommend he emigrates.

Yes, we are. Best start getting a zombie plan.

Thanks Jack - that video explains things more clearly than the 40 mins of newsnight I just sat through.

I think I need to go for a lie down now.

In a word: yes. We are loaning hypothetical money to the IMF, who will loan it to countries who can't pay it back. That must be a winner, shirley? We are fucked. Not the rich, obv, just everyone else. I wouldn't mind so much if they were at least honest. The lying cunts. By that, I mean the people that put us here. They know who they are. And they still take bonuses.

Soooooo, Hedley, if the countries can't pay it back to the IMF, the IMF can't pay it back to us, then we won't get our hypothetical money returned, then we will be out of pocket by, erm, how much?

It's all too confusing for me. Wake me up when we can shop again.

The problem is the secrets leaking out ..........

Great video.

"by that, I mean the people that put us here. They know who they are. And they still take bonuses." Not as simple as "the bankers"-but the politicians love to blame them.........

Our country's £2.2 trillion plus debt/liabilities has been blamed (IMF calculations) as only 14% due to bank bail outs..............

As for the circa £155-60 billion structural deficit....well we payout more than we get in.........

No we're not doomed. The economy may be struggling to grow and the stock-markets and currency markets may be up and down like a yoyo but there's still plenty of business going on, still people buying and selling. We all need food and other essentials and there are still plenty with money, at home and overseas, that want the non-essentials as well. We are an intellectual economy of well-educated individuals - ideal for high end technical goods, services & research rather than basic manual labour that can be replicated elsewhere - and our financial sector is one of our biggest strengths. The economy may be 5 or 6% behing where it was in 2007 but, last time the economy was that size, there was plenty going on, plenty to go for.

'The rich' are not as vulnerable as the rest of us. That's not a criticism, just a fact of life. If it wasn't a fact of life, no-one would buy a lottery ticket in the hope of getting rich. What doesn't help is having our heads down...
Time to get creative about solutions at micro level i.e. taking more responsibility for our own fortunes, and relying less on government to provide the answers.

I am sure people felt the same at some point in the 1990s

And the 1980s

And the 1970s..........

1990s When the ERM mess was going on, sterling was all over the place, houses were in negative equity and interest rates went from 10%-15% and back again... doom merchants out in force. 1980s doom-laden if you were unlucky to be dependent on one of the old industries. 1970s High inflation, the oil crisis, 3-day weeks, constant strikes, power-cuts and ending with GB going cap in hand to the IMF... doom merchants wet dream.

PLEASE lets not forget the impending health crisis with yet ANOTHER super flu bollocks this year

Yes and no: 70s was far worse than the later two (but you have to be quite old to remember that first hand, so the 80s tend to be the popular bogeyman).

Comparisons are beginning to be made to earlier depressions - and this time we don't have war reparations and repairs to blame.

If UK goes down badly on the back of the Eurozone (which could well happen), are we still going to blame "bankers" "global crisis" or actually wake up and deal with what we've got, rather than hankering after the unreal dreams of the 00s ephemeral bubble?

Cogito, I agree 100%.

But you forget that a lot of people LOVE doom somehow, including the media. They love reporting or hearing it is the worst it's ever been.

Same way as people getting excited when we have bad weather (remember last year's Frozen Britain hysteria), really, it was just a few days of cold.

Must be the same people that like watching disaster movies or stop and stare at accidents.

custardo

Ah, yes. I'd forgotten about that

Tbh, I would rather not think about my impending death due to ebola/anthrax/sarin/swine flu/plague etc till I actually start getting buboes in my groin, coughing up bits of my lungs or coming out in pus filled spots.

Thats just me, though

Things are bad. Really bad for some.

BUT my point was they were really bad for some in the 1990's/80s and 70s....and yet we are still all here, spending money, buying xmas gifts, buying food and petrol and houses and fuel to keep us warm over the winter...that wont stop, surely?

"that wont stop, surely?".... of course not. Here in the UK there are austerity measures affecting most of us but, at the core, we are still a relatively well-off, well-educated society and plenty of ordinary people haven't lost their jobs or seen their income dramatically reduced. We all got used to the 'spend spend spend' atmosphere of the first 10 years of this century so economising feels hard. In the 70s (which I remember well) I don't think there was that contrast. People lived more within their means so when time came to cut back, it wasn't such a disaster.

No optimism here.

as also worried about this :(

We are doomed. In about five billion years the Sun will go into a red giant phase and the Earth will either be boiled or engulfed (the maths on exactly which is a bit tricky). And then (well, billions more years later) the universe will probably experience either a big crunch or heat death.

Was there " unreal dreams of the 00s ephemeral bubble?".

Not sure there was for the young. I'm terrified for DS.

We have merely built up huge debts at our children and young adults expense. But the politicians need there vote winning policies (prescription charges, bus passes, winter fuel allowances...)

Rising house prices disproportionate to earnings driving up welfare payments (most on housing benefit have jobs but still cannot afford living expenses). The bubble took investment out real industry/business, people actively saying house price rises will mean their property will be their pension (ie not saving but relying on the next generation to pay for it by increased mortgage).

An NHS/welfare system that will not be able to cope with a growing elderly population. There are tough decisions

The "bank crisis" is the tip of the iceberg.

Opps "their vote"

Of course we are all doomed, has it ever been any other way?, war, poverty, terrorism, environment. the powers that be like to keep us in a constant state of fear, it quells discontent and increases spending, nothing like being stressed to get people to buy things to help them relax.

"it quells discontent and increases spending"

Not much evidence of either at the moment. Don't think that argument really holds water.