Credit Crunch/Recession Thread
 

Nobody can ignore the effects that worldwide recession will have on many people's lives, so let's talk about it on this thread. In the UK alone something like 6 million people is being predicted will be unemployed in the next few years, quite a big number. I didn't see any signs of this when I walked down Oxford Street the other day, which was packed full with christmas shoppers. I doubt the same thing will be witnessed next year.

i wonder how long it is before i lose my job

Yay! I call dibs on a swing!

someone should go and film the busiest day of xmas shopping
and then film it next year and see the comparison

Set opposite a freak on a train
Warts on his head and chin
Boy, was I getting so vain
I saw the recession around Victoria Station

I think that shopping now plays such a major part in so many people's lives that they'll continue to do so even at the expense of other, more important things. As such I don't think we'll see the full extent of the recession on the high street so much as in supermarkets, where people will begin looking at cheaper brands if it means they can save money to spend more therapeutically on luxury items.

It's all a government conspiracy, man.

OMG VOMIT SUICIDE!!!

Today the Bank of England is trying to get us excited by telling us that next year inflation could drop below 1% next year, as if that's a good thing. What they fail to mention is that it will happen as a result of the economy totally imploding, and will contribute to its further implosion.

When I studied economics at school I was told that low inflation and low unemployment are mutually exclusive conditions, yet our government is still trying to keep inflation unnaturally low, while unemployment spirals out of control.

anyway, in all seriousness, this is the first month i've felt the pinch-- clients not so eager to jump on projects as in months before. OUCH i say. OUCH.

I'm probably going to graduate in the worst possible time, and in the worst possible field. On the other hand, my hopes were never high.

Bring on the REVOLUTION!

I'm in two minds. I'm quite the spendthrift as it is, and I've got an ok-paid job. I've still got money after rent and food for records and booze, and I'm not that worried about anything else, outgoings-wise. So I've taken a small hit on food, but it's far from putting me on the breadline.

On the other hand, I'm looking at re-entering the dual world of wankers (university and in London) next year, which will likely mean that I'm living on a very small budget indeed, unless I sort myself out with contract work, which would be difficult enough at the best of times with minimal experience.

However, generally speaking, I'm one of the people who's ok - I've got a trade that I'm good at that's not really lacking in jobs, and not likely to go away. There's a lot of people who aren't lucky like me though, poor buggers.

So, how's the record industry doing? Did Guns N Roses save rock n roll?

Oh, and on the subject of Oxford street - I think it'll take a much larger drop in the economy to seriously hit the high street of one of the financial epicentres of the world. London will probably start getting more violent though, as the rich suits live on top of the less fortunate, less employable sorts.

people on salaries should be ok for now, as long as their employer can make payroll. so there should be no need to shrink your expenses unless you're saving up in case of job loss. if that's the case, stash a few of these in a cookie jar:



otherwise, it's your civic and moral duty to keep spending to keep the rest of us going, right? (no, seriously).

Keynes, yep. I've probably been spending more the last 3 months than in the preceding 6, so I'm part of the way there. I'm fairly confident my job's safe, it's a large multinational company who've laid off everyone they can in the last 2 months (lots of big scalps gone) and the big concern at the moment is that trade isn't growing to projections, not that trade is shrinking.

the only risk you see is that if your large multinational company is in dire financial straits and can't make payroll from cashflow, you might be in shit regardless. dont mean to scare you, but if banks are not lending sometimes even big businesses can sink (see: american auto industry).

Oh God, that's exactly how I am too. I'm an English major, which is the epitome of useless. At least I had low expectations to begin with.

I actually work in Soho (and so wander around Oxford St a fair bit), and as Glice says, the credit crunch has not hit London as yet. I feel that in 2009, the squeeze will hit us Londoners, and again, as Mr G says, the violence will then become all too real...

I am graduating now. As in by the end of the month.

And it is a BA in Philosophy.

Cry me a river.

Thanks for not scaring me. I'm not really too worried, I look at the figures, I know what's going on.

ha ha ha ha

o cmon!

I'm sure you can bullshit your way into a job easier than a business graduate. Philosophy might not be directly useful, but you've really learnt nothing if you can't baffle people into think you're more capable than you necessarily are (that's not meant as an insult either).

im currently shitting my pants cuz my revenue has depended on people who do advertising, but i'm looking for a new niche.

bank robberies maybe...

That requires a master's degree, at least.

i dont think he has the same confidence in his education as you have. i don't mean it as an insult either, but he's buying the bullshit about "the uselessness of philosophy degrees"-- when actually the world is in need of people who can think clearly.

Obscurantism is fun, I must admit.

Though if I hear business types tossing "paradigm" around to describe their marketing campaigns, I might murder them.

Well, I was the same when I was coming out of the same qualification he's getting. It's pretty natural, stage-fright, suddenly realising that this thing that you've devoted years of your life to that you're passionate and, hopefully, good at, is not particularly vocational. It was about three crappy, short-term jobs in that I realised that half the struggle in any job is convincing people that you're right, which philosophy is very, very good for. It's also good for mitigating office-tension, something that a jumped-up business BA isn't going to have.

I'm doing fine. I currently have lots of money with very little need for "stuff".

I'm graduating next month with a BA in RAP SUPERSTAR. the future's so bright, I have to wear welding-goggles.

Actually, I don't buy it. I just love the attention that comes with pity.

A philosophy degree looks pretty badass when you follow it up with a masters or whatever in something specific.

you're in the right place for that kind of crap.

do you want that served with a side of derision?


even by itself. but anyway, if you love school, this is the right fucking time it seems.



i thought robinstigator had massacred you last time. you're asking him for a rematch?

i might put on my don king wig & profit from this shit.

Same here. I'm hearing from clients who tell me they're cutting their freelance budgets. Yikes. I'm seriously going back to working for the man--have some irons in the fire right now. I need to get hired before hiring freezes go into effect.

Aren't you the dude who actively partcipated in making the election of someone who's going to make you feel the pinch even more seriosuly than everyone else before real (i.e. wasting time and changing nothing)? Shouldn't you be the one who will have the deadpan look on his face when derision will come in all the brutal force of grim reality?

I never heard anyone using philosophical concepts to give the impression to others at work that they're right, and I work in a pretty 'arty' establishment, where you'd think that sort of practice should be thriving.

Yeah, but (if you'll excuse the prickery) I work in a more 'properly' corporate environment, where everyone's very keen to use high-falutin' concepts to edify the lack of actual content to their ideas.

at the moment I am looking for work as a catholic school teacher, though the hiring period is not until June, so now it is just choreographing my future movements.

However, here in CA the sky is falling, they are predicting a $7 trillion dollar deficit, which I can't even believe because the annual budget of the entire nation last year was barely over $3 trillion.. however they are laying off public school teachers by the thousands..

lucky for me Ethiopia is marginally affected:

In October this year, the PM told the parliamentarians that the financial crisis does not have that much effect on Ethiopia because the country's financial sector has not yet integrated with that of the developed world.

In fact, the long serving banks in Ethiopia are state-owned, and it has only been 14 years since private banks entered the sector. The country's strict banking regulations do not allow foreign companies and investors to penetrate the financial sector.

you know there is trouble in paradise when third world countries offer better prospects than california!

Anyone (if you'll excuse my prickery) who's been to the South Bank on a regular basis would not only disagree with that, but find it absurd. A big art complex in London isn't some small business company based in Bristol. Guess where the 'proper' corporate enviroment bit comes from.

Good thing which always happens in times of great economic strain is that all the best (and worst) ideas come to the fore from any corner, so not all is bad.

It really isn't a small company. If you've had a drink in the last week, they've had an oar in it somewhere. But whatever, you're right, London does have more than it's fair share of prickery. London does not, by any means, have a stranglehold on corporate prickery. I'm not entirely sure what the point is now, but... yeah. Eat it.