gareth_oau 2 Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 read an article in the paper this morning that the british government were about to throw 2B pounds at the british car industry to help prop it up (to pay off some european debts?) I also saw an article saying htat pubs in england were closing down at an alarming rate of up to 6 per day. Perhaps the govt should be handing out some beer vouchers? Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 that would be a great idea. They had luncheon vouchers, so why not beer vouchers? And then after the beer..... Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Quote: Britain will be hit harder than any other advanced nation in the worst recession for more than 60 years, world economists warned last night. In the bleakest assessment yet of British prospects, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that the economy would shrink by 2.8 per cent this year, twice as much as it previously thought and far more than the 2 per cent average drop for developed nations in 2009. The stark figures are a severe blow to Gordon Brown, who has continually insisted that Britain is better placed than most countries to weather the downturn. The IMF outlook suggests that the recession in Britain will be deeper than that in the United States, Italy, France and elsewhere. Yeah as if anyone believed that one Gordon. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Actually pubs have probably been closing down every day for quite a lot of years now. Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Yeah, but they open up again the next day Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Actually, in all seriousness, they don't. In the town where my parents live, countless pubs have closed since I was at college. I can think of 10 just now off hand. Pubs closing (and changing into some horrendous hybrid) is nothing new, but perhaps that is simply speeding up. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 A remember villages with narrow roads and pubs on either side of it. Theres like 6 houses in total and 4 pubs. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I was quite shocked to hear the chat on UK TV the past couple of weeks in the lead up to Davos, talking about the potential for Britian to follow the Icelandic disaster and end up totally bankrupt as a nation! Are they talking the world into a deeper hole than need be, or is it really on that steep a slope to damnation? Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Originally Posted By: pie-eater Actually, in all seriousness, they don't. In the town where my parents live, countless pubs have closed since I was at college. I can think of 10 just now off hand. Pubs closing (and changing into some horrendous hybrid) is nothing new, but perhaps that is simply speeding up. Now, that is sad! I was referring to the closing time. Every pub closes each day and opens again the next. If the closure is permanent, that is a sad indictment on the laws (drink driving for example) that have made it impossible for a pub to remain viable. We get the same sort of thiong here in Oz, the good local publs get bought out by the breweries and then shut in preferenmce for their own outlets. Sad, and shameful! Link to post Share on other sites
Curt 1 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 What about the Japanese economy then? The indicators were so bad that analysts have described it as the day the "perfect storm" came ashore. Japan's unemployment soared at the fastest rate in 44 years to 4.4 per cent in December, while industrial output fell a record 9.6 per cent in the same month and retail sales shrank 2.7 per cent, the fourth straight month of decline. All the bad news undermined Prime Minister Taro Aso's confident declaration to Parliament on Wednesday that, "By taking bold countermeasures, Japan will aim to be the first to emerge from this recession." Of particular concern will be the rapid increase in the unemployment figures, with 390,000 losing their jobs in December alone, bringing the national total to 2.7 million out of work. "These figures are the perfect storm for the Japanese economy and were the only missing element that kept any optimism in the economy at all," said Martin Schulz, senior economist with the Fujitsu Research Institute. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Here's a secret. Japanese economy has been in the shit hole for so long that they are cinsidered to be the ones best at it. Yen high is hurting Japan alot, but that is haven against Yuro, Pound, Dollar. RMB is going to devalue more. The more the US criticizes, the more devaluation. I got out of RMB a few months back. I am cashed in HKD, which is same as USD. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 but don't tell anyone. And don't take my advice. I am always wrong. Link to post Share on other sites
Mantas 3 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Originally Posted By: scouser Actually pubs have probably been closing down every day for quite a lot of years now. There goes the last reason left to enjoy my visits to the UK Link to post Share on other sites
IIIII 2 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Quote: While admitting that Britain is “in the eye of the stormâ€, the Prime Minister said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that the country will see off the worst of the slowdown if the public can harness the “British spirit†and remain resolute and upbeat. Gin, perhaps? Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Originally Posted By: Curt All the bad news undermined Prime Minister Taro Aso's confident declaration to Parliament on Wednesday that, "By taking bold countermeasures, Japan will aim to be the first to emerge from this recession." I wasn't aware that Japan had ever really emerged that much from the previous recession?! Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 ^^ hehe nice one. Link to post Share on other sites
Mantas 3 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 She'll be right. Black plague, countless wars, blitzcreed.........you'll never kill that British spirit. (pommy bastards) Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 With numbers relating to Japan, you have to consider how big the car industry is and how much each car costs. If people stop buying them, then GDP will fall by a large amount. That said, if the car industry doesn't employ all that many people, the pain won't be as big as if other industries fell by the same amount. I don't think electronics will fall by the same amount as the car industry as a 10-year-old car is nowhere near obselete. A 10-year-old game console or mobile phone might as well be. If they can get the price down for good ones, electric cars and plug-in hybrids could sell like mad though. You're still talking 3 million yen plus at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites
torihada 2 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Originally Posted By: Mamabear I was quite shocked to hear the chat on UK TV the past couple of weeks in the lead up to Davos, talking about the potential for Britian to follow the Icelandic disaster and end up totally bankrupt as a nation! Are they talking the world into a deeper hole than need be, or is it really on that steep a slope to damnation? Population of Iceland approx 330,000, UK 60 million. The debts of its banks are around six times its annual gross domestic product of $20 billion. (UK GDP $2.7 trillion) - 2007 estimates. Interest rates are now at 18% in Iceland and currency has devalued by 70%.* There is talk about Iceland being fast tracked into the Eurozone. God help us if we end up in as bad a hole as Iceland. *source: Wikipedia Link to post Share on other sites
ShinyDiscoBall 2 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Originally Posted By: Mantas She'll be right. Black plague, countless wars, blitzcreed.........you'll never kill that British spirit. (pommy bastards) Nasty man! Link to post Share on other sites
Mantas 3 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 It's a term of endearment, Link to post Share on other sites
ShinyDiscoBall 2 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Oh I see. You git. UK economy was suspended yesterday, due to snow. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Where's the nearest tall building? Britain is facing its worst financial crisis for more than a century, surpassing even the Great Depression of the 1930s, one of Gordon Brown's most senior ministers and confidants has admitted. In an extraordinary admission about the severity of the economic downturn, Ed Balls even predicted that its effects would still be felt 15 years from now. The Schools Secretary's comments carry added weight because he is a former chief economic adviser to the Treasury and regarded as one of the Prime Ministers's closest allies. Mr Balls said yesterday: "The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years, as it will turn out." He warned that events worldwide were moving at a "speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before" and banks were losing cash on a "scale that nobody believed possible". The minister stunned his audience at a Labour conference in Yorkshire by forecasting that times could be tougher than in the depression of the 1930s, when male unemployment in some cities reached 70 per cent. He also appeared to hint that the recession could play into the hands of the far right. --- The other great depressions *Long Depression, 1873–96 Precipitated by the "panic of 1873" crisis on Wall Street and a severe outbreak of equine flu (Karl Benz's first automobile did not chug on to the scene until 1886), it was remarkable for its longevity as well as its global reach. In Britain, it was the rural south rather than the rich cities of the north that suffered. The UK ceased to be a nation that relied in any way on farming for its livelihood. *Great Depression, 1930s The "Hungry Thirties" were rough on many, at a time when welfare systems were rudimentary. The worst period was from the Wall Street Crash of 1929 to about 1932, but in places such as Jarrow, the unemployment rate hardly dipped below 50 per cent until the economy was mobilised in 1940. However, for many in the south and for the middle classes, the times were relatively prosperous. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Link to post Share on other sites
2pints-mate 0 Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Interest rate now cut to bollocks all 0.5% in UK today. Seriously thinking about what to do with my savings now. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts