Not a recession

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Jus reading a few articles in the economist and the telegraph saying that what we are in now is not a recession but a return to normality and the last 10 years haven't been prosperity or growth but an artificial 'bubble'

The Economist usually puts out soundly based stuff.

It's a respectable point of view; I must go and reread Tulipmania to see if I can spot parallels. Anyone know if there are any good reads on the South Sea Bubble?

Yes I agree with that. The last 10 years were unsustainable madness. A completely artificial bubble. Luckily or perhaps wisely DH and I did not give in to the madness and did not overstretch ourselves with a massive mortgage or other credit but i feel sorry for those who did.

My brother has been saying this for yrs.

My own personal view is that the uk was always going to go into decline once the British Empire started to break up and countries such as India gained independence. A lot of our wealth, jobs and industry was based on importing raw materials from the empire, manufacturing them into consumer goods in the uk and then exporting them back to the empire to be sold. Once that moneyspinner came to an end from the 1940's through to the 1970's our fate was sealed. We artificially propped up the economy for the last 10 years but now that's no longer possible we are basically doomed.

I don't feel sorry for those who did tbh I have friends who really lived it up while we had second hand cars etc and holidayed in the uk. It is not normal for someone earning 30k to have a big flash house/car. My friend really made me laugh as she thinks not being able to go to pizza express is some sort of govt punishment as she had just stopped seeing things like that as a treat and considers it a right. I think things will change drastically now there are no more tricks up sleeves to re start things so it looks like this downturn could last (according to cameron and co) upwards of 10 years and may never return to teh levels it reached before

Ye i agree with that and i also think we'll never return to the levels of prosperity of the last 10 years. My lifestyle will remain the same as we never splashed out anyway even when we could easily have remortgaged etc. I always thought it was a crazy thing to do.

I renovated about 12 houses over that period but never had a flash house myself! I think a return to sensible borrowing and realistic expectations could be a positive thing

Completely agree - the 10yrs previous to the credit crunch were a mirage. The whole economy was built on debt so it was never real as eventually it would have to be repaid.

My parents are classic examples of this living it up with multiple cars and houses and just endless 'stuff' and now they can't quite grasp the concept of having to pay eventually and the real prospect of negative equity.

Also at the moment, with growth/reduction varying around zero in tenths of percents, we may technically be in a recession but it's not in the order of the early eighties (or elsewhere in Europe today) where the economy could drop away five and six percent in a quarter.