Monday, Aug 11, 2008
Plunging house prices, down 9pc year-on-year, are forcing consumers to cut back on discretionary spending on goods and services.
Telegraph: Britons cut back on spending as their assets sink £600bn
Britons are £600bn worse off than a year ago as the economy veers perilously close to recession, leading accountants have warned. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the year-long global credit crisis has slashed housing wealth by £400bn, while the value of other assets has plummeted by £200bn due to share price falls. Plunging house prices, down 9pc year-on-year, are forcing consumers to cut back on discretionary spending on goods and services.........
Posted by jack c @ 10:25 AM (1051 views) Add Comment
14 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. Sneaker said...
Ha ha, yes folks that's right -- prices are stable, the economy is strong and inflation is low, having eliminated boom and bust!!!
2. mrmickey said...
Easy come easy go
3. debtfree said...
Politicians and governemnt talk big numbers, 5 billion here, 8 billion there.
Lets break down a billion and put things into perspective:
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
A billion pounds spent by the UK consumer is only 89 hours ago.
Total UK personal debt at the end of June 2008 stood at £1,444bn.
The growth rate increased to 7.4% for the previous 12 months which equates to an increase of ~ £98bn.
PS - Hope I got my maths right, there were plenty of zeros :o)
4. jack c said...
What about a Billion excuses by Gordon Brown on why none of the current economic and political turmoil is his fault
5. tyrellcorporation said...
2 CVF aircraft carriers = £3.9bn. UK's new carriers look good value.
Failed NHS IT project = £20bn and counting. A large computer database (someone somewhere is laughing very hard!)
NR bank bailout = £100bn and counting. Adam Applegarth is laughing very hard!
This government really struggles with numbers.
6. peter_2008 said...
"More than a quarter of all employers now plan to make redundancies over the next three months." So much for the employment fundamentalists. We should be seeing things turn really ugry in the a few months time.
7. mark wadsworth said...
That £600 bn is proper money.
And prices are only down by 10% so far, they've got another 20% to 40% to go ...
8. titaniccaptain said...
@ Tyrell 4.
Elderly and disabled having to pay for their own care and yet they can throw this kind of money around................I am getting angry again.........
9. hpwatcher said...
the year-long global credit crisis has slashed housing wealth by £400bn
What a load of rubbish. The housing stock was severely overvalued and never, ever worth that much.
Joke Figures.
10. Brownout said...
We've all got used to the credit crunch, and billions this and billions that ..
Then I started hearing how the fall in USA housing stock was over $1 TRILLION, or 1,000 billion, and 1,000 billion is 1 million million.
However, there is a chance that the unregulated market in mortgage insurance and credit default swaps (CDS's) could start unravelling into a financial meltdown to dwarf the 'credit crunch'.
Banks have been selling CDS's to each other like some fantastically huge pyramid scheme for the past few years, the total value tops out at a reported $60 TRILLION, all of which ultimately points back to the security of house values … which are currently in freefall ...
… and that could get very nasty indeed.
11. mark wadsworth said...
HPW, of course the houses weren't worth that much, but the debts are....
12. hpwatcher said...
HPW, of course the houses weren't worth that much, but the debts are....
Not neccessarily. Not all houses have been bought and sold in the past 5 years. Moreover, what about all the lovely reposessions and foreclosures ;-)
13. mark wadsworth said...
HPW, I meant the personal debt of £1.4 billion odd mentioned by Debtfree above.
14. Sneaker said...
For all the people shouting about "get rid of Brown", just remember that it's not long since people were clamouring to "get rid of Blair."
At the time, sage voices were cautioning that before wishing someone goes out, better make sure that a decent replacement is lined-up.
Blair was flawed, but he was a stable leader and had a strong, deft way of operating. It may not have met with everyone's approval, but it served to keep him in power for over 10 years.
Brown has none of the deftness that we grew used to under Blair; party that's because Blair had long enough in power to hone his skills. Following Blair's act was a hard call, and it's clear that Brown is just not up to the job in terms of leadership, and perhaps also policy management.
However - can we be sure any successor would be an improvement? Frankly, against these economic odds, I don't think anyone will quite match Blair's poise and sheen, whether you liked him or not.