New record levels of personal debt...

Milarky

Forgive me if this has been posted already but I'm gobsmacked by this statement

Personal insolvencies likely to set new record...

Britons are addicted to credit, owing a third of all the debt in Europe. Only 18 months ago total net lending to individuals passed £1 trillion. Now the total is nudging £1.3 trillion and rising by £1m every four minutes, according to the consumer group Credit Action, which believes that almost one in 10 people show signs of "financial stress".

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1981478,00.html

£1 trillion = £1000bn!

0.3 trillion = £300bn

Assume all borrowers are about 30 million in total (half the population - excluding children, non working family members, pensioners in general, people who don't need to borrrow etc)

That means that in 18 months average indebtedness has lept by £10,000 per borrower! Yes a lot of this is mortgages, and I suspect the article ignores the increase in asset values - mostly in property in that time - making the borrowing technically 'self-financing'. Not all of this extra debt has gone into consumption.

[But it's still quite a sobering reality]