Perceptions of the recession

tyllwyd

chewmylegoff wrote: »

a recession is two quarters of negative growth. the only way you could know that has happened without the media is by visiting the ONS website and checking the figures each quarter - although that said i would could their website or any press release they made as part of the media.

Yes, exactly - the figures are available, but the vast majority of people (no matter how intelligent they may be) aren't going to know where to look or what to make of the information. We rely on financial journalists to bring it to our attention and to put it into context.

stevetodd

GrammarGirl wrote: »

I wasn't proposing a new way of measuring intelligence! I completely, completely agree with your point... I made that remark in response to someone else's equally ridiculous statement. It was meant to highlight the flaws in the argument - one person's lack of knowledge in a specialised field doesn't make them unintelligent overall.

If taken out of context, it seems as if I am lording it over everyone with my grammatical knowledge, which I'm not at all!! :rolleyes:

But I wasn't making a ridiculous statement, the statement I was making was not the one that you implied that I made. It was that, for those that had the clues ie interest rates down to 1%, banks going under, work drying up, FTSE falling below 4000, stores closing etc. the less intellgent would be less likley to conclude that we are in a recession. I was careful also to say 'less likely' rather than that they simply wouldn't get it. But you twisted to infer that I was saying everyone who didn't know about the clues was unintelligent. I have already explained this to you once.

You took one part of my post without considering the context, I had even mentioned Sherlock Holmes solving the collection of clues.

GrammarGirl

Oh come on! Stop flogging a dead horse. I've apologised for 'misunderstanding' your meaning and I've ignored your facetious comments, let it go.

stevetodd

GrammarGirl wrote: »

Oh come on! Stop flogging a dead horse. I've apologised for 'misunderstanding' your meaning and I've ignored your facetious comments, let it go.

I did let it go as far as I was concerned it was over, however if you are going to carry on saying I made a ridiculous statement (when you know I did not, I even offered an open appology to anyone who was incorrectly offended) then I will respond.

Anyway more importantly 2 WI wickets have fallen whilst I was walking the dog

chewmylegoff

stevetodd wrote: »

But I wasn't making a ridiculous statement, the statement I was making was not the one that you implied that I made. It was that, for those that had the clues ie interest rates down to 1%, banks going under, work drying up, FTSE falling below 4000, stores closing etc. the less intellgent would be less likley to conclude that we are in a recession. I was careful also to say 'less likely' rather than that they simply wouldn't get it. But you twisted to infer that I was saying everyone who didn't know about the clues was unintelligent. I have already explained this to you once.

You took one part of my post without considering the context, I had even mentioned Sherlock Holmes solving the collection of clues.

in the absence of media reporting about the recession and connected doom and gloom, the FTSE wouldn't have gone under 4,000. the FTSE was only driven down below 4,000 because of bad news about the economic outlook - the media. if there was no news about the economy reported in the media there probably wouldn't be a FTSE, and you certainly wouldn't look at it and be able to draw conclusions about the general economic conditions as the state of the economy would not be "priced in".

stevetodd

chewmylegoff wrote: »

in the absence of media reporting about the recession and connected doom and gloom, the FTSE wouldn't have gone under 4,000. the FTSE was only driven down below 4,000 because of bad news about the economic outlook - the media. if there was no news about the economy reported in the media there probably wouldn't be a FTSE, and you certainly wouldn't look at it and be able to draw conclusions about the general economic conditions as the state of the economy would not be "priced in".

Good point but the FTSE was only one small part of the overall picture

chewmylegoff

stevetodd wrote: »

Good point but the FTSE was only one small part of the overall picture

true, but it's unclear how you would actually know about interest rates being 1%, banks going bust, etc without the media reporting it to you.

in reality the media would be replaced with chinese whispers on an enormous scale.

you'd just as likely think that HBOS was run by reptilians as comprehend that the true extent of any recession.

stevetodd

chewmylegoff wrote: »

true, but it's unclear how you would actually know about interest rates being 1%, banks going bust, etc without the media reporting it to you.

in reality the media would be replaced with chinese whispers on an enormous scale.

you'd just as likely think that HBOS was run by reptilians as comprehend that the true extent of any recession.

I have 5 BOE tracker mortgages and had 33k in Kaupthing Edge when it went belly up (not agood time)

chewmylegoff

stevetodd wrote: »

I have 5 BOE tracker mortgages and had 33k in Kaupthing Edge when it went belly up (not agood time)

ok, so you'd know what the base rate was. perhaps.

however, would you actually know what had happened to kaupthing without the media? you would only hear what they chose to tell you. your only corroborating evidence would be tales of dragons laying waste to iceland, or some kind of massive volcanic eruption.

the only saving grace is that with no media your initial thought wouldn't be "i hope kerry katona didn't escape".

ninky_2

so far i wouldn't have noticed there was a recession in terms of impact on my life - mortgage has shrunk (have a tracker 0.49 above base rate). am freelance in a field where is can be tricky to find work so i'm used to insecurity but have had nice long contracts. husband is of the lo / no skill workforce and has found work harder to get over the last 5 years (probably due do imported labour) and if anything the jobs on offer to him have slightly improved in the last month or two. don't know anyone who was in a permanent job who has lost it yet.

regarding woolworths, i'm surpised they didn't go bust years ago, they've failed to move with the times or keep up with competition (wilkinson, tesco etc). i mean, pic n mix is hardly a usp these days....sorry for those who lost their jobs but that high street dinosaur had to go.