UK economy set for biggest fall since 1945

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amcluesent wrote: »

It's the kiddies I feel sorry for.

I hear their carefree laughter in the playground and inevitably one foresees a future where the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are riding out.

My heart sees its own image
Painted in the sky.
It is nothing but winter –
Winter , cold and savage.

Laugh now while you may, for soon enough, you'll have pestilence, famine, war and death as your companions. Grim, grinding years of austerity will be your inheritance.

Ah, and if the leaf falls to the ground
My hopes fall with it;
I, too, fall to the ground
And weep on the grave of my hopes.

Bang on the money, grim but very, very realistic. Someone said we have the capability to adapt, 'tis true, but time is way way too short, the four horseman will indeed ride in the next 40-50 years, and civilisation as we know it will end.

baileysbattlebus

Masomnia wrote: »

Well, obviously the economy took a beating and we owed America a lot, but still I don't think we had a recession. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.

My point is we have this rather shocking headline, re-iterated in the first paragraph, and then nothing else. Did GDP actually fall then? Is the method of measuring the same? Are the data as reliable? How many quarters? Seems a bit disingenuous to me.

There was a recession in 1947 not 1945 - post war optimism changed to gloom because of physical shortgages - there had been so much infrastucture damage thoughout the world during the war - that it led to shortages of necessities.

One of the shortages was coal. The gov't of the day had electricity cut to industry in large parts of the country and to all domestic consumers for 5 hours a day. This was during one of the harshest winters on record.

There was also a sterling crisis - as a condition of the American loan agreement in 1945 - the gov't pledged to make sterling convertable to other currencies - this led to a rush to exchange sterling for dollars and after the reserves plummeted this was suspended. And was followed by a new round of austerity measures. Then there was the devaluation of the £ in 1949.

It must have been great - at least the lights haven't been turned off yet.