JMK wouldn't recognize this bunch of financial soothsayers

The main risk to economic stability is not the credit squeeze - it is a cheap labour service industry economy financed by unsustainable credit levels.

Paris icon because she knows more about ups and downs (financial or otherwise) than this bunch of charlatans.

Back in June 1999 we had a chat with a City analyst, he said that 2k was a pivot point and quite accurately predicted just how deep the brown stuff was going to be through until 2003. At the time one of our senior managers wrote it all of as "scaremongering us into a recession". He didn't make it into 2002.

Watch out for those sneaky BOFHs and BITCHs (Bizz IT Cash Holders, ie IT bosses) carefully making themselves "essential parts of the corporate system" (ie, unfireable) right about now.....

Flak jacket please, I'm meeting the beancounters later!

No mention there, John, about the Virtual Black Economy .....and ITs NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActivity ....AI Colossal Astuteness.

A Dark Horse Wild Card Play Gambit, in All Probability, Probably.

a 30% fall in house prices? you are having a laugh. There is almost certainly going to be a period of low growth, maybe even modest negative growth for a while, but definitely nothing more than a couple of percent.

This is because of high demand with insufficient supply, driven by the investment and property development markets. Typical that making money takes precedence over the ability of ordinary people to buy a decent place to live. Poor transport links, for which there is no real solution in sight, will also continue to drive people to look for property in specific areas close to centres of job availablility, rather than moving away to more affordable areas.

Just my cynical view of the UK - which has developed over the 13 years I've lived here. Same seems to be happening back in NZ, because overseas property buyers inspired by Peter Jacksons movies have blown the housing market out of all proportion.

...those that hold the interest rate strings, they've got alot to answer for increasing interest rates to try and curtail the price of fuel, which was in turn the core reason for rising inflation. Fuel rising in price due in a good part to all the conflicts around the World.

It's too late now though, the 'bust' part of the cycle is upon us, those holding the interest rate strings went way too far.

"Willem Buiter of the London School of Economics believes house prices will fall by about 30 per cent in the next two years with no major impact on the UK economy"

Rather ironic comments coming from a man who, as a member of the supposedly-independent Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, is partly responsible for the economy being in the state it is now.

This sort of situation has been predicted, and discussed, in other forums for nigh-on five years now - what we're seeing is a long overdue correction (all IMO, of course). If the value of my house falls by 30% then so be it - it'll be a far more realistic indication of its worth than what some estate agent tells me.

Prudence and her chickens are finally coming home to roost - some people will suffer, others won't. So it goes.

That second sentence is surely a reject from "Blinded by the Light"

amanfromMars - you are Bruce Springsteen and I claim my five pounds

There's nothing for it - the government needs to order a full-scale onslaught of "Location, Location, Location" and "A Place in the Sun" on TV in order to convince people the housing market is still booming!

"Virtual Black Economy .....and ITs NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActivity ....AI Colossal Astuteness"

Right, I know amanfromMars is going to ignore this post as he usually completely fails to reply to my attempts at interpreting what he says; however I'm the kind of person that picks at a scab so here goes - amanfromMars, are you trying to imply that there is a black market in information via IT and that HAARP will cause something big and bad to happen which has been planned by a bunch of massive supercomputers which have concocted a plan which will make all our petty financial problems completely irrelevant?

If so, does this mean we can all stop work for a living and play on video games all day?