Recession in the u.k.

[Thanados]

A serious problem I'm guessin, but I dont know much about what happens.

Anybody know? I'm talking about loans, council tax, jobs etc.
What do you think caused it?

How long do you think it'll last?

 

[Bambi]

Lets not forget fuel prices rising by 61% before the end of the year >_>

Apparently repossession is at an all time high aswel, what with interest rates sky rocketing.

I'm sure things will get worse before it gets better aswel, everyone (bar the cunting super rich) is feeling the strain atm

As for what caused it, all of the above

 

[Thanados]

Yeah, but what caused all of the above?

Supposedly, we have plenty of stocks of everything (o.k., maybe not 'plenty' of everything but a lot). yet prices keep on going up. obviously, it would run out at some stage, but it isnt like they arent finding/making more (of whatever it is) at the same time if its oil etc (e.g. for petrol); why are all countrys wasting time, money, materials and intelligent people on uninportant things such as space projects, etc.?

If you're doing something like cleaning up and you knock over a glass, you clean up the glass first and then continue; the human race has been improving over the ages but we gotta sort out this problem before continuing.
I also think the prison system is to blame, people arent afraid of it. They're packed, cost far more than they should and are not intimidating enough in my opinion. I'm not saying that they're the nicest places to be or that its fun, but they arent the places they should be.

Man, there's loadsa things that need sorting in this damn country but what are the government doing? sod all, theyre useless.

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

Yeah, but what caused all of the above?

Supposedly, we have plenty of stocks of everything (o.k., maybe not 'plenty' of everything but a lot). yet prices keep on going up.

Because the UK imports a hell of a lot of resources from abroad. Namely food. People all want more exotic and exciting foods from far away, which costs fuel money. Less oil (and therefore fuel) = higher food prices for importing.

 

[Donald Trump]

The UK is rather fortunate with its balance of payments. It has a stupidly high currency, probably the strongest or one of the strongest in the world. Great for imports, terrible for exports.

I'll explain what a recession is firstly, it is when a country has negative growth for two consecutive quarters.
Recessions are characterised by increasing unemployment, less jobs, decreasing real wages etc. It's pretty much when things go bad.

Supposedly, we have plenty of stocks of everything (o.k., maybe not 'plenty' of everything but a lot). yet prices keep on going up. obviously, it would run out at some stage, but it isnt like they arent finding/making more (of whatever it is) at the same time if its oil etc (e.g. for petrol); why are all countrys wasting time, money, materials and intelligent people on uninportant things such as space projects, etc

Because they do different things. Scientists specialise, the ones doing space projects wouldn't help the problem of oil.
Furthermore, oil isn't the main problem, it causes cost push inflation, but that isn't the main problem.

Which is the credit crunch. Which is when all the banks in America decided to let poor people in no position to pay back loans, have loans to buy houses.
Oddly enough, they defaulted on their loans. Banks lose huge amounts of money, I think it's somewhere in the hundreds of billions.
Now, I'm sure you all know that banks lend money to each other, so banks in the UK lose money because of the banks in America. So now they have less money, which means UK businesses can't get loans, and businesses need loans. So businesses aren't getting the money they need so they start to produce less. Some businesses collapse, others get rid of departments. People lose money.

What will happen to taxes is interesting. As inflation is increasing, so the BoE(Bank of England) will want to have relatively high interest rates to keep inflation low. But on the other hand, low interest rates are good for economic growth, which will help against a recession.

Man, there's loadsa things that need sorting in this damn country but what are the government doing? sod all, theyre useless

Yeah, governments can't wave a magic wand and fix an economy. Conservatives wouldn't use that wand even if it existed.
It's pointless trying to blame the government, when they aren't actually guilty of anything.

 

[Soul Saver]

Well, of course, it's obvious now.

Let's look at it... it's been pretty robust up until now. However, alot of prices have just been rising. Food price rises, oil price rises... food price rises being mostly the fault of biofuels, which have taken up farmland on a large scale. Thanks short-sighted US government. Oil affects the price of everything, and supply hasn't been able to keep up with demand. There isn't a terminal shortage of oil, there's insufficient production capacity.
Add to that the credit crunch, and you have yourself alot of problems. I'm not sure which comes first, but I believe that they've happened around the same time.

And, I think that the government could have done more. Such as securing oil supplies, and encouraging oil producers to up production... even nationalising an oil company and setting lower prices, thus forcing other companies to follow suit and increase production. That sort of stuff. It has an effect, and could reduce the severity of economic downturns.
The government can act. Mild intervention is better than disaster.... as I see it, anyway...

The recession isn't affecting my life too much, as my dad's job is apparently secure.

Business cycles suck though, and severe recessions are mostly avoidable. It's early days to see how much damage will be done, but more careful investment, more government attention to the economy, and an active cooperation with business would help.
Also, the UK economy mustn't rely so much on the financial sector, and it should be regulated more carefully.