Panicking slightly - can people please convince me this is a good thing

PasturesNew

I'm curled up on the sofa with a bag of wine gums.

mewbie_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm curled up on the sofa with a bag of wine gums.

Now that's comfort! To Carole, and others worrying. Stop focusing on it for a while, let it blow by. It's a bit like worrying about a nuclear war, nothing we can do about it anyway. Just keep on working, saving money, don't make big financial commitments and with fingers crossed we will get through it unscathed.

A bag of wine gums might be just the thing.

dudleyboy

carolt wrote: »

Trying to view current economic situation calmly, but finding it hard, as news is just one thing after another.

Short of taking deep breaths, can anyone older and wiser (or indeed younger and calmer) please explain gently why this is all a Good Thing or why it's better to get it all out of the way, or some such.

Could really do with some optimism.

Alternatively, does anyone know any funny stories or irrelevant but cheery anecdotes to take my mind off the sound of dominoes falling, houses of cards crashing etc.

Please.

I'm afraid it's as bad as it sounds, carolt.

I honestly think we're entering uncharted territories here but I see a few things to be positive about:

• You don't owe hundreds of thousands of pounds on a rapidly depreciating asset
• If you lose your job and find another elsewhere then you only have to give a few months notice before you can move and start it rather than have to try and sell a rapidly depreciating asset before or after
• If the UK economy goes t!ts up you can emigrate to a more robust economy as you have no financial obligations to hold you back here

Not much, granted, but silver linings nonetheless.

StevieJ

Why do people persist in saying how brilliant they were in forecasting the UK problems
that are related to UK stupid lenders, mewing etc. The problems we are experiencing do relate to the housing market but it was the US housing market and the related CDO'S etc and I am sure most people were not aware of the toxic nature back in 2005.

Trollfever

It is September and history does repeat itself!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/16/newsid_2519000/2519013.stm
.

dudleyboy

mewbie wrote: »

Now that's comfort! To Carole, and others worrying. Stop focusing on it for a while, let it blow by. It's a bit like worrying about a nuclear war, nothing we can do about it anyway. Just keep on working, saving money, don't make big financial commitments and with fingers crossed we will get through it unscathed.

A bag of wine gums might be just the thing.

I'm going for just the wine!

And I'm stocking up while I can! I remember my dad used to make his own wine because it was so expensive! No thanks - I'm turning the spare room into a wine cellar.

I've got my duck and cover sorted.

Cranston_2

StevieJ wrote: »

Why do people persist in saying how brilliant they were in forecasting the UK problems.

Because its the truth.

Back in 2005-2006, we (in the UK) had average house prices 8 or 9 times the average wage. We had banks providing mortgages of over 100%. We saw some banks granting mortgages 10 times income. We had house price inflation of 10% with a GDP of 2%.

A similar story was being played out in the USA.

Those fundamentals can only exist in the short-term. They could never continue for the long term. Whilst exact tops and fall-outs are impossible to predict many correctly saw that at some stage a bear market would happen and that due to the large amount of debt in the system the bear market would be bad when it hit.

WTF?_2

StevieJ wrote: »

Why do people persist in saying how brilliant they were in forecasting the UK problems
that are related to UK stupid lenders, mewing etc. The problems we are experiencing do relate to the housing market but it was the US housing market and the related CDO'S etc and I am sure most people were not aware of the toxic nature back in 2005.

Because plenty of people even a year ago were telling us that we 'bears' were nuts for calling an end to house price rises, substantial falls and an economy about to hit the rocks.

I only started to look into this whole thing at the end of 2006 when I wondered why houses were so stupidly priced upon my return to the UK and it was pretty immediately obvious after 2-3 hours of surfing that things were going to end very badly indeed in the relatively (2-3 years) near term.

Why other people, the majority as it happens, couldn't see this on the 'House Buying, Renting & Selling' when lots of us people who could read the writing on the wall started posting in earnest, I'll never be quite sure.

Posting on this group you learn a lot more about human nature than sound economics it seems. I've learned that many people desperately do want to look the other way if they think there's a one-way-bet and people desperately do want to believe 'too good to be true' economic fairytales :rolleyes:

Guy_Montag

Relax, worrying about this isn't going to help the situation - it's entirely out of our hands.

Have a cup of tea, then take a hot bath, with a bottle of ros!!. Have a gentleman friend pop round to soap your back (£50/day + expenses )

Incisor

carolt wrote: »

... Short of taking deep breaths, can anyone older and wiser (or indeed younger and calmer) please explain gently why this is all a Good Thing or why it's better to get it all out of the way, or some such.

Could really do with some optimism.

Dunno Carol. In itself, it is far from a Good Thing. The Bad Thing was the mutually stupid lending and borrowing. What we have now is the inevitable consequences. Painful as it is, it does mean that we are moving on from the Bad Thing.