Economists -this way please

[Brollyflower]

What does such a close result mean for the economy? (in words of one syllable please as even Peston goes over my head )

Complicated. Stock market/currency markets might wobble a little until the fog lifts and we all know who is in charge. Then it depends upon what who is in charge actually does. Look out for some kind of emergency budget/spending review and then we'll all be a little clearer on how the economy is going to be affected

so it will be affected then?

cos people are bloody stupid and instead of thinking it through just wanted to "stick it to the man".

We ended up like this with 30 years of lunatic monetarist policy.

Wait until the next recession, one year, five? What will be left then?

The broader economy is always affected... good or bad... mostly by 'confidence'. If other countries think our government are doing a good job and they are confident in the UK then they will invest, for example, and that means we have more revenue to spend, more jobs to go around etc.

The economy - the fortunes of public services, business and individuals - is heavily affected by government policy on taxation and spending. Fiscal policy. If we get a government that likes to spend a lot and tax a lot (Lab/Lib traditionally) then that has one effect. If the government favours spending cuts and keeping taxation low (Con traditionally) that has a different effect.

On an individual level, if you're a net contributor (you pay more in tax than you get back from benefits or public services) you'll be better off with the latter. If you're a net recipient (you pay less in tax than you get back in benefits or public services) you'll be better off with the former

OK that's interesting thanks.

Will there be unemployment rises? Crime waves? Riots?

What about the house prices?

I'm a bit worried be events in Greece and market wobbles yesterday. If Spain/Portugal get affected too, our election result looks unfortunate to the rest of the world and the big volcano (next to the current one) gets going might all this be enough to cause economic bizarreness (as I like to think of 2007 [wink)?

"monetarist", "fiscal" all Greek to me