The Myth of record debt!

boyse7en

Count the number of For Sale boards you pass on the way to work. One
How many empty new build properties are near you? Err, how near is near? Within 1 mile radius of home, none that I know of
Listen to conversations in supermarket queues. Tried it and they looked at me suspiciously and then walked away quickly
Visit your local court. Three points and a £180 fine.
Check out mortgage fraud. Checked it out, sounds risky so I'll give it a miss
Look at the queues outside your local CAB when they open in the morning. Don't know where it is...
How many people do you know who have been made redundant this year? Zero, none, nadda
Count the number of empty units in your local shopping centre. Shoe Express closed down. The mall has lost its sole.
Chat to your local car dealer. I play Tennis with a guy whose got three showrrooms; Vauxhall, Renault, Mazda/Land Rover. Times are hard at the moment, but he used to be a Rover dealer so he knows what having no customers is like.
Visit the Bankruptcy Board on this site. <<Hugs>>

TBH, I read about the problems far more here than I witness anywhere outside in the 'real world'. Tesco's car park is still busy. Cars are still on the roads. The Indian takeaway is packed on a friday night.
I'm convinced we are in for a downturn, I'm just not seeing it yet.

StevieJ

boyse7en wrote: »

TBH, I read about the problems far more here than I witness anywhere outside in the 'real world'. Tesco's car park is still busy. Cars are still on the roads. The Indian takeaway is packed on a friday night.
I'm convinced we are in for a downturn, I'm just not seeing it yet.

I know it is often a psychological relief to escape into the real world, like waking up from a bad nightmare.

Really2

boyse7en wrote: »

TBH, I read about the problems far more here than I witness anywhere outside in the 'real world'. Tesco's car park is still busy. Cars are still on the roads. The Indian takeaway is packed on a friday night.
I'm convinced we are in for a downturn, I'm just not seeing it yet.

Same here but not as funny as yours.:rotfl:

setmefree2

boyse7en wrote: »

TBH, I read about the problems far more here than I witness anywhere outside in the 'real world'. Tesco's car park is still busy. Cars are still on the roads. The Indian takeaway is packed on a friday night.
I'm convinced we are in for a downturn, I'm just not seeing it yet.

You should see Oxford St & Westfield - totally heaving. I think nobody's told them about the recession....

Really2

setmefree2 wrote: »

You should see Oxford St & Westfield - totally heaving. I think nobody's told them about the recession....

I have told my wife but she is doing her best to "support the economy":D

At least the Christmas shoping is all done.

purch

PFI finance

:eek:

Sschhh............that's Gordon's little secret :A

purch

I'm convinced we are in for a downturn, I'm just not seeing it yet

You could quite easily miss it altogether !!!

The way it is portrayed sometimes you would think that a Downturn or Recession is all Orphans, Soup Kitchens and People sleeping rough.

The 1970's was a pretty bad recession, but we had non of those Dickensien scenes............and I hardly noticed the downturns of the 80's and 90's.

Times change....this could be the worst Recession the World has faced since the 1930's but the outcome for the vast majority won't be anywhere near the same as it was then.

sdooley

And before people pop up with various figures on how future pensions liability pushes up the level of 'debt' (if so then why isn't all future spending debt?), this problem 'the pensions time bomb' is worse for Governments in almost all developed countries than Britain.

The reason is partly because almost all other rich countries give their pensioners more money, but that's another issue.

PFI is different, an area where the pessimists have some merit, and some forms of PFI should be brought on balance sheet as debt (in fact some are already, probably not enough there).

There is a further issue with government debt in that it is divided into various shades of 'good debt' and 'bad debt'. Old war stock paying a 2 or 3% coupon with no redemption date is the best form of debt for the government because it is cheap. Domestic debt, including to NS&I certificateholders, is also good because the repayments will recirculate in the national economy to some extent. Foreign debt in sterling is generally ok, but there is a risk of a 'buyer's strike' if inflation takes off. The 'toxic' kind of government borrowing is where the majority (as with Argentina) is in a foreign currency, meaning if the currency declines both the interest payments and the amount outstanding increase just as the government's capacity to pay likely declines - this is when countries often have to go to the IMF.

Luckily, the vast majority of UK debt is denominated in sterling, a hangover from its historic status as a 'reserve currency' (technically sterling is still one - by far the smallest - of the four reserve currencies used to calculate the IMF's currency 'Special Drawing Rights').

Dithering_Dad

sdooley wrote: »

And before people pop up with various figures on how future pensions liability pushes up the level of 'debt' (if so then why isn't all future spending debt?), this problem 'the pensions time bomb' is worse for Governments in almost all developed countries than Britain.

The reason is partly because almost all other rich countries give their pensioners more money, but that's another issue.

The UK has more private pension provision than the whole of the rest of Europe put together. Fact.

I hate the way the doom mongers slag off Britain. There are some things that are wrong, but there are more things that are right.

setmefree2

purch wrote: »

You could quite easily miss it altogether !!!

The way it is portrayed sometimes you would think that a Downturn or Recession is all Orphans, Soup Kitchens and People sleeping rough.

The 1970's was a pretty bad recession, but we had non of those Dickensien scenes............and I hardly noticed the downturns of the 80's and 90's.

Times change....this could be the worst Recession the World has faced since the 1930's but the outcome for the vast majority won't be anywhere near the same as it was then.

I truly never noticed the one following the dotcom bust in the early 2000s