So do we all think there is a recession on the way or are you still hopeful we'll avoid one?

[Callisto]

Barratt housing have announced this morning that they are expecting to lay off 1200 workers having experienced a near 50% drop in house sales recently. Bovis and Redrow have also laid people off. The City is, allegedly, laying people off too. So with unemployment on the rise (I've heard 2 million will become unemployed in the next couple of years), manufacturing shrinking for the last two months, inflation running at around 9.5% and no end in sight to high oil prices, is there any way at all we can avoid a recession? And do any of you think that the Govt can do anything to prevent it?

Think I am suffering from 'survivor guilt.' My much-loved MIL died last year and left DH and me a whopping shed-load of money. We are therefore in the fortunate position (financially) of being well-cushioned at the moment, BUT at the cost of having lost someone we loved dearly. So, at the moment, I am staring, aghast, at what seems to be happening (or about to happen) to other people. If MIL was still with us, we'd be toppling into a financial abyss. So, it's hard to feel fortunate, although it must look from the outside as though we're OK.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I mean, Callisto