Recession ..?

[jon]

Over my life and I am twelve years older than jim, there have been dozens of recessions in our economy, whichever government is in place makes no difference.

A cynic might think MPs are self serving.

[R D S]

The next bunch will sort it out, I have no doubt, they said so.

[Cursitor Doom]

Notice they're saying pay rises will generate inflation. They've just spent the last 16 years doing nothing but printing a shit-ton of money

- yet they want ordinary working people to pick up the bill for their almighty f*ck-up.

[Jamesy]

But there has been dramatic differences in how severe some recessions have been.

Or that one crew isn't much more effective at avoiding recessions than the other.

[Fredxx]

What we have seen is asset inflation. Now alternative measures of inflation such as RPI and CPI are going to catch-up.

[Joe]

Who else is there? Businesses don't pay tax, their customers do. Nobody paid out of taxation pays a penny into the Treasury. Everything the government spends is paid either out of tax paid by private sector workers or is counterfeited, sorry, printed. Everyone with any cash savings pays for the printing.

But we're way past the point where the government's debt (*not* the national debt, it was the government which ran up the bill) can be paid out of taxation. There is only printing. That way lies hyperinflation, after which we will be expected to use the one-world digital currency. As long as we're good little boys and girls.

[Colin Bignell]

On the bright side, it does mean that interest rates are going up.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

The future is bright, at last, for those with money in the bank, or maybe Orange :-)

[Cursitor Doom]

So savers will lose a tiny bit less money a month; yay!

[Jim Stewart ...]

I remember in 1969 you could get three gallons of petrol for less than a pound...it has been all down hill from then .....

[Jim Stewart ...]

Good....when I had no savings and a mortgage interest rates were 15%

[Jim Stewart ...]

since I have been loaded and no mortgage ....peanuts

[charles]

in 1964 (when I got my first car) I was able to get 4 gallons for a pound,. I can rememner my father paying 2/9d for a gallon in the very late 40s.

[R D S]

They know what they are doing, they just don't care, they won't suffer from it, will they?

[R D S]

And at least one of them will get a knighthood!

[Brian Gaff]

I think in the main, as long as unexpected things do not occur in the world in more recent times there have been fewer boom and bust periods. I think that in today's world where a number of unpredictable things have happened, then capitalism has a very non linear reaction, for quite valid and obvious reasons, since it all revolves around confidence in values that are, in effect nothing more than a projected worth. If you want to get all the money washing about as cash, you would not be able to do it, as it simply does not actually exist, its just generated by the efforts of various industries, services etc, that is the way we live. Brian

[Vir Campestris]

AIUI currently inflation is 9%, and the base rate just went up to 1.75%.

I think that means -7.25% in real terms.

In 2019 inflation was less than 2%, and the base rate was **** all.

So only -2%.

Interest rates aren't going up anywhere near enough.

The value of the pound against the dollar and euro suggests that too.

And I have a bad feeling the other lot would make an even worse mess :(

Andy

[Bob Martin]

Not possible.

[JNugent]

Amen to all of that. Rates need to be up around the 12% mark in order for there to be a hope of getting inflation back down to 2% over any reasonable timescale.

And it isn't all bad news. It would certainly make housing more "affordable" for people who currently can't afford it. Their savings for the deposit would multiply quicker, too.

[SteveW]

But also meaning that many that have an existing, large mortgage and are facing higher costs for everything, could find that higher interest rates on top mean them ending up homeless.