Britain’s going bust

October 21, 2008 on 4:58 pm | In Debt Management

I am sure you will agree with me that it is near impossible to avoid the daily headlines signalling that more financial troubles lie ahead.  As the credit crisis continues to take hold of the economy, everything points to recession.  I think we are already in a recession.

As food and fuel prices continue to soar, house prices free fall and concerns over the dire mis-management of the economy widens, the overall picture looks bleak for millions of families in the run up to Christmas.

In the last decade the UK has enjoyed low unemployment, however as the economy continues to slow down John Philpot of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said that ‘a rise in unemployment could be more sudden and sharp than in previous economic downturns’.  General Secretary, Brendan Barber of the TUC also warned ‘that it now looks very likely that total unemployment will reach two million during 2009’.

In the past few months there have been significant redundancy announcements at employers from major house builders and financial services companies.  In recent weeks there have been job losses announced by:

Aer Lingus
Bradford & Bingley
Lloyds TSB
Northern Rock
XL

The prospect of being made redundant is an increasing concern of workers across all sectors of employment.  As our financial commitments are pushed to their limits it may be an idea to think about your financial worries before they get out of control.

If you are concerned about your financial position, don’t delay in seeking professional debt advice.  If you are just about keeping your head above the water, there is no better time than the present.  At Simple Debt Solutions we offer free, non judgemental advice allowing you to take regain control of your situation.

 

Recession or even depression?

October 8, 2008 on 10:30 am | In Debt Management

In my last blog instalment I mentioned recession. Now it appears that everyone agrees that the recession will hit but now they are trying to anticipate how bad it will be. Economists won’t get it wrong but will it be the ‘storm of the century’?

The last super recession, or depression was following the 1929 Wall Street crash. That crash caused a global financial crisis which came from toxic debt which could not be repaid. The similarities between the Great Depression and the last three weeks are obvious; failure of banks, debts in excess of assets and government bail outs etc.

In the Great Depression hard times started in the early 1930s and for some went into the 1950s, following a World War. I don’t think that this recession will be as bad as the 1930s one but it is going to be very bad.

Our economy has been fuelled on credit as do most modem economies and the credit crunch has stopped that, effectively cutting the life force of the economy. It is only the ‘emerging’ economies, such as India and China that will stop a global recession.

I do think that this recession will be worse than that of the most recent recession in the 1990s which saw two years of a shrinking economy, a doubling in unemployment, a fall of more than a third in house prices and the failure of tens of thousands of businesses. This is what’s coming and if this is going to hit you because you have unmanageable debt or perhaps you need to restructure your finances, give Simple Debt Solutions a call.

 

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