Listening and watching the news today I have heard several references to the word recovery in relation to this recession, the biggest we have experienced since the war.
The job situation was cited as an area which is showing improvement in that unemployment statistics in the UK have gone down slightly. Then in the next breath it was revealed that there were more people working part-time than ever before. It was then stated that most people's pay is not keeping up with annual inflation which is stubbornly stuck at 3% plus. A well heeled BBC 'economic spokesman' then came on and also made a reference to recovery. Well there may be one for him, I expect his services are in demand, like those who work at the Job Centres, but I don't see much evidence from my experience.
In the housing world apparently house prices reached their peak in 2007 and I read yesterday that it could be at least a decade before they regain the dizzy heights they achieved then. Ok, maybe a correction was necessary, but the outlook doesn't look too brilliant, does it?
Add to this the fact that the banks still remain largely unregulated, unwilling to lend, except to those who don't need the loans anyway, and at rates which are unrealistic to most people and it doesn't look a very rosy picture from where I stand. The bankers continue to make risky investments to raise funds (for what, some bigger bonuses?) and so we hobble along.
My bet, if I were a betting man, is that we are in for a painful double if not triple or quadruple recession. Just be thankful that I'm just a half-glass empty pessimist rather than an economist. Apparently, the economists couldn't see the recession coming, but I saw it looming and it came as no surprise to me.
