UK Economy Bad to Worst?

Scary news story time.

I think we all know that the UK economy is not really in the best shape
but it look like the rest of the world is starting too put two and two together.

There is a relative silence in the international financial press when it comes to Britain. The economic situation of continental Europe gets almost all the attention. Every now and then someone in France or Germany states that Britain, too, should be downgraded, like when S&P cut the ratings of 9 European countries, but such statements attract hardly any interest at all. This might not be overly wise, though.

There been a lot of talk online about the state of the economy mostly on the
more off beat sites.but as france get downgraded as well as eight other countrys
you got to ask how safe is the UK.

TextTable 1 shows that the fall in UK GDP in 2007-2010 was $562 billion compared to the next worst performing national economy, Italy, with a decline of $65 billion – i.e. the decline in UK GDP in the common measuring yardstick of dollars was more than 8 times that of the next worst performing national economy. Table 1 shows the 10 national economies suffering the greatest declines in dollar GDP. It is also extremely striking that the UK’s decline was more than two and a half times that of the entire Eurozone.

Thats $497 billion worst off than italy

Busness insider

Today another retailer looks like its going into administration.just one of the companys on
the high street in trouble right now because of no help from the banks.

More than 13,000 retail jobs are on the line at value fashion group Peacocks after Royal Bank of Scotland walked away from restructuring talks at the heavily indebted retail chain. Peacocks may have to appoint administrators after the state-backed lender had an abrupt change of heart about a deal to refinance the retailer's £600m debt pile, which would have involved risking more money in the business. RBS and Barclays were in the driving seat of the complex debt-for-equity negotiations – which were said to involve 18 funds and lenders – as they are owed the most. Both banks are owed more than £100m.

Guardian

And here the link for the Zerohedge post on the 950% debt to GDP that the UK has

ZEROHEDGE

This little lot above makes you wonder how healthy our little island is and maybe we
not realy any better off than france with the goverment looking like it only cares about
jobs in the city of london because soon at this rate the UK economy will probably just
be the city.
Its just sad to think that its only three years ago that when Gorden Brown started chucking
public money at NORTHEN ROCK most of us thought nothing much about it.

little did we know.

The news has been fairly quiet about the economy here in the UK which makes me quite nervous, I definately get the sense they are hiding some huge problems.
I've been unemployed for 6 months now and these past couple of months have been extremely difficult to find jobs vacancies to apply for.
My town has 25% unemployment of 16-24 year olds btw.

Lies, damned lies and statistics.

The reason some European countries - notably France – think that the UKs economy is in a poorer shape is that they are miffed that they have been downgraded by the Credit Agencies and the UK has not.

Had France kept the French Franc then they may not be in a compromised position.

The UK economy is contracting – that’s no secret. However, I would rather be in the UK than France.

Regards

reply to post by paraphi


I would really love to believe that, could you please provide some evidence?

I too live in a very high unemployment area, especially for the school leavers. The Northwest, we are really struggling here.

Originally posted by Threegirls
I would really love to believe that, could you please provide some evidence?

Perhaps provide evidence to the contrary that the situation in the UK is worse than elsewhere.

It is recognised that the UK is either in, or close to a recession. Certainly unemployment is up and life's pressured. However, this is not an uncommon feature of the current economic climate globally. A brief Google shows that UK unemployment is lower than the French rates at the minute, for example.

Regards

The reason you don't hear much, is that the UK has kept a very strong thumb on the population and media.

Kinda like Syria.

reply to post by skuly


The best (and worst) aspect of the UK economy is that most of the wealth generated by the UK is entirely fictional wealth generated by the movement of monies. Not production .. not invention .. not science or manufacturing.. just investment.

This means that the UK economy can see HUGE losses in it's GDP from huge losses in the financial sector. but also, it can see HUGE gains made by huge bounce backs in the equities markets. Another downside is that Britain is entirely dependent on the World-wide economic health of various economies simply based on the level of investment in other economies. Britain is especially exposed in emerging economies in places like Asia and Eastern Europe. IMO, the most alarming aspect of the British economy is that it's level of dependency on it's London based financial services firms is that any major transnational alteration in how financial markets work (much like OWS type movements have suggested) would lead to Britain falling from a World renowned economic power to ..... a destitute nation. The level of public services and socialistic services provided via the government means it cannot under any circumstances lose it's title as a major World financial hub, and any major transnational movement to alter the aspects of the transnational financial climate would leave Britain bankrupt.

Hence why Britain has been so hesitant to join the Euro or collaborate with French inspired economic proposals.

reply to post by Rockpuck


The UK is Greece if Greece had simply retained the Drachma. The EU can put the screws to Greece because they completely converted to the Euro, knowing that they really have no fall back position that wouldn't result in a chaotic collapse. I'm not sure the same holds true for the UK. If the EU was to seriously pressure them, the Brits could simply abandon the Euro and retrench the Pound. I believe, even with the Euro being valid in England, the British Pound is the 4th most traded currency in the world marketplace behind the Dollar, Euro, and Yen. That's a significant safety net, in my opinion.

reply to post by burdman30ott6


Because the UK is not a production economy, they're main source of wealth being derived from the financials means that they depend a good deal on their position with their currency. Normally an economy like say.. Germany or Japan does not want a very strong currency because it effects their exports. The Brits do not depend on exports as their main component to their economy. In this they are different than all of Europe.

If the Brits were to see a massive correction of their economy, they unlike Europe, can "monetize" the debt.. they cannot have the crisis that Europe is having because they can inflate their way out of their woes.. much like the USA does. Europe cannot monetize, though they are desperately trying to. But because Britain relies heavily on a strong currency, monetizing to save an economy that does not produce as it's main economic component is akin to shooting your self in the foot.

Here is further analysis on the topic:

theautomaticearth.blogspot.com...