Anybody see where recovery is going to come from?

Paulgonnabedebtfree

ad9898 wrote: »

I've been doing some cheery reading over the Christmas period on the collapse of complex civilisations. I think the answer is, we may well recover, but it will only be temporary.

Our way of life is unsustainable in every way, infinite growth in a finite world is impossible. The next 50 years will make the last 50 look like a picnic.

I'm inclined to agree with you regarding unsustainability. In previous generations (and even centuries) there has been somewhere else to which we could export "the problem". That quasi-solution seems to be no longer available.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

!!!!!!? wrote: »

You can print money but you can't print real wealth.

If all that was happening was some arbitrary event causing the credit markets to freeze up then these policies might make sense.

What has actually happened is that the engine of credit creation during the last decade has thrown a rod and seized completely. It's a write-off.

What we need to do now is adjust and try to become more productive and much less reliant on using credit to live beyond our means. It'll be painful in the short term but half-baked attempts to kick start the credit-fuelled consumer led economy again are futile and dangerous to long term economic health.

Brown just doesn't seem to get this. He still seems wedded to the idea that the economy was on the right track and would have continued going along nicely if only some completely extraneous happening messed it up. Wrong wrong wrong.

Brown gets it alright. The man's no fool. He's just worried about the reaction of the masses if he were to tell the REAL truth.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

amcluesent wrote: »

Soylent Green ration wafers coming soon!

Yeah. Look over your shoulder in case your neighbour wants to eat you

1echidna

Just come back from Christmas away (and away from a computer) and been having a read through the thread. Thanks everyone for their contributions. To be (perhaps wildly) optimistic I wonder whether financial services can to some degree make a comeback (tho' it may take five years and more). Lloyds of London is managing this after the asbestos debacle in the insurance business. There is plenty of expertise and experience and links in the populace to all regions of the world in London. I suspect there will be a lot of hunger to resurrect a restructured business perhaps even managing to fix the blame on the Americans for the worst excesses which caused this crash. Other than this there are pockets of manufacturing excellence, some with a high technology basis but the US, Japan and Germany are much stronger industrially and seem generally more adept at incorporating high technology into their businesses.

neverdespairgirl

mewbie wrote: »

I've put the Wiki entry here in case any one else is as thick as me and has never heard of Malthusian.

GCSE geography, innit.

neverdespairgirl

space_rider wrote: »

I`d holiday abroad but it`s the weather that spoils things. We went to cornwall several years ago in June and it rained the whole time. After that we went abroad. I do go for short breaks in the lakes and center parcs. Also ventured to Scotland when flights were cheap and that was nice too.

Don't let the weather spoil anything, that's the answer.