Econoporn a thread to discuss economic factual media

avantra

With the myriad of TV and Radio programs about the economy and how bad it is I thought it is only appropriate to have one thread to rule them all.

Last night's Panorama was named 'How to Survive the Meltdown' but apart from showing British jobs being lost by a Canadian company and some small time operations want to trade with China there was no answer to 'how to survive'. Maybe this forum can trow some ideas before I replace my tin hat with something a bit more durable.

michaels

Not a lot factual in the media, especially the BBC - I saw a few mins last night and there was no mention of how if we carried on spending we would end up like Greece with the IMF imposing cuts that would make the current situation look like a picnic in the park.

Also lots of concentration on people who had lost their jobs, no interviews with people on low rate mortgages or landlords who were doing ok thank you very much.

RenovationMan

My advice is to prepare for a meltdown before it happens, then you have the funds in place to profit from it.

shortchanged_2

The way many of these think tanks have been stating that we can still achieve economic growth with all the facts in front of them is laughable.

Mmmmm.............people are being taxed more, pay freezes, inflation is eating away at incomes, unemployment rising, consumer and business confidence is falling, to name but a few.

Eventually some are now being realistic and are forecasting a recession over the next year but they took their time to state the obvious.

spadoosh

michaels wrote: »

Not a lot factual in the media, especially the BBC - I saw a few mins last night and there was no mention of how if we carried on spending we would end up like Greece with the IMF imposing cuts that would make the current situation look like a picnic in the park.

Also lots of concentration on people who had lost their jobs, no interviews with people on low rate mortgages or landlords who were doing ok thank you very much.

Why will we end up like greece? The spending power of greece is tiny compared to us, they also have very little in the way of an income, mainly from tourism, which as a result of the financial crisis has left very few people willing to spend money there. Also 15 years greece had a very poor economy. Hyper growth has led to a stalling of their markets, it was inevitable really.

Our economy is mainly based on service exports which tends to be more needed than luxuries. Dont get me wrong im notpainting a picture of a perfect UK but to compare us with greece is like comparing apples and oranges as they say.

Refering to the OP, i watched a documentary 'Doomsdayers 2012' (i think it was called that) and it was based on a few families in america who are preparing for end of world scenarios mainly financial meltdown, loss of law and order etc. Interesting documentary.

I think its hard to plan to survive the 'meltdown' as its almost impossible to work out were to put capital investments. So from a financial point of view, the best most people can do is short term planning. This might be short sighted of me but god forbid an economy like ours does end up like greece, i would imagine their would be considerable more chaos and repuccusions of our failings than theirs. And looking back through history, when hyper inflation kicks in their is very little people can do to be financially secure.

spadoosh

RenovationMan wrote: »

My advice is to prepare for a meltdown before it happens, then you have the funds in place to profit from it.

Again, hyper inflation will make your funds obselete. People 10 years ago who had millions in investment portfolios are now being made bankrupt, no one is immune from a meltdown.

I will prepare by trying to pursue and enhance skills that people will always need. Skills that are needed without money.

Generali

If things really do go chests up (unlikely IMHO but you never know) then assets including gold are likely to be worth little or nothing as the rule of law will go.

The best hedges against that are:

1. Put yourself in a position to be autocratic ruler of the UK or even just your local area
2. Join the military (they get fed first)
3. Buy whisky (good for barter with alcoholics)
4. Don't worry about it

I go for #4 for the most part myself.

spadoosh

Generali wrote: »

If things really do go chests up (unlikely IMHO but you never know) then assets including gold are likely to be worth little or nothing as the rule of law will go.

The best hedges against that are:

1. Put yourself in a position to be autocratic ruler of the UK or even just your local area
2. [STRIKE]Join[/STRIKE] BE the military (they get fed first)
3. Buy whisky (good for barter with alcoholics)
4. Don't worry about it

I go for #4 for the most part myself.

Best advice ive seen to date!! Minus the edit, arm yourself to the hilt!

Generali

spadoosh wrote: »

Best advice ive seen to date!! Minus the edit, arm yourself to the hilt!

There's no point these days, you'll always be outgunned.

kabayiri

I suspect a change in mindset is required. This sort of thing requires a generation to change, not months.

I committed the cardinal sin in the diy forum by saying I quite liked the 2 dysons I have owned. I guess I wasn't ready for the scathing response.

People are very quick to defend their German vacuum cleaner because, well, it's German of course. The Beeb program mentioned how Dave C hailed the signing of £1.5bn of business with China, and the very next day they go and sign over £10bn with Germany! It seems the message about German goods has reached China too.

I am a proud owner of British hifi, yet when I mention how good our hifi products can be people seem astonished that we still make it !

Unless, we can get the typical British consumer to :
- buy quality over quantity
- dump the landfill culture
- speak positively about the goods we make
- adopt a service and repair mentality

we will fail our businesses, and miss the Green agenda too.

RenovationMan

spadoosh wrote: »

Again, hyper inflation will make your funds obselete. People 10 years ago who had millions in investment portfolios are now being made bankrupt, no one is immune from a meltdown.

I will prepare by trying to pursue and enhance skills that people will always need. Skills that are needed without money.

LOL, brilliant.