We now enter the 'grey dismal' years says Robert Peston

Generali

tomstickland wrote: »

Talking of Grey, that's how John Major was portrayed on Spitting Image.

I like the Steve Bell cartoon of him:

moanymoany

StevieJ wrote: »

Most people pay their debts and act responsibly, why is using credit not living within your means?

Those who have used credit to live a lifestyle they could not otherwise have lived are going to find it difficult to adjust to living within their means. Many of them are going to find doing that AND freeing up money to pay their debts impossible.

Using credit responsibly does not usually lead to the difficulties we see laid out before us on the DFW board day after day. The sub prime fiasco and massive credit card debts that are laying the USA low - and us as well - are not made up of people who act responsibly and who pay their debts. And there are a lot of them ...............

Guy_Montag

The reason the US did so well out of the world wars was that it was a major exporter & relatively safe from threat.

While it's major competitors: Europe, the USSR, Japan & China, were knocking seven shades out of each others manufacturing bases, the US could get on with making things & flogging them to the Allies (&, I believe, early on to the Axis too). Post-war & the US realised that they needed a strong Europe to buy things from them so lent a lot of money to rebuild European infrastructure.

So going to war in itself didn't make the US rich; it's competitors being involved in total war was what worked. Kicking seven shades out of Iran isn't going to help, that won't help the country, just as neither the wars in Vietnam or Korea substantially affected the US standing in the world.

tomstickland

I've just been reading some threads on debt-free-wannabee.
Some of the situations frighten me. Interest only mortgages on expensive houses, 2 cars and variable income that just about covers things on good months.
Then there's the momentum problem of changing the lifestyle, especially it appears with friends' expectations.
I'm lucky; like smoking, I've never felt the urge to fall in love with conspicuous consumption. Well, tell a lie, I did have around £6K of debt at one point, but I cleared that once I woke up and smelt the coffee.

Generali

Guy_Montag wrote: »

The reason the US did so well out of the world wars was that it was a major exporter & relatively safe from threat.

While it's major competitors: Europe, the USSR, Japan & China, were knocking seven shades out of each others manufacturing bases, the US could get on with making things & flogging them to the Allies (&, I believe, early on to the Axis too). Post-war & the US realised that they needed a strong Europe to buy things from them so lent a lot of money to rebuild European infrastructure.

So going to war in itself didn't make the US rich; it's competitors being involved in total war was what worked. Kicking seven shades out of Iran isn't going to help, that won't help the country, just as neither the wars in Vietnam or Korea substantially affected the US standing in the world.

The US almost entirely fought WWII using new production: only about 8% (IIRC) of the weaponry used to fight the war was displaced production from elsewhere. Similar was true in Germany for most of the war (until the last couple of years when things started going badly for them).

In the UK however about 60% of stuff used to fight the war was displaced civilian production.

neverdespairgirl

moanymoany wrote: »

No car, no health service, no central heating, no credit, no young men, rationed food, clothes and everything else. The difference was that this was not a huge difference to the life they had before the war - except for the men!

My grandparents married on 2nd September 1939. Grandad was based in the UK for a while (my uncle was born in 1942) but was posted to the Far East before his son was born. He came back in 1947, when my uncle was nearly 5, and they'd never met each other before. Very difficult indeed.

mr_magoo_5

I’ve always respected Robert Peston; don’t know why, but his straight foreword, realistic, financial commentary on the BBC, has always got my attention.
Whereas, normally I take TV with a pinch of salt.

concorde

fun times ahead...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/09/paulsons_monster.html

moanymoany

concorde wrote: »

fun times ahead...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/09/paulsons_monster.html

It all makes for troubled reading.

amcluesent

Best bet is for HMG to offer a good few ££ billion in perpetual [STRIKE]War[/STRIKE]Bad-bank Loan at 3%. Then let inflation rip!