The last few days has been quite strange in that everyone is really jittery over the Northern Rock crisis in the UK. There are so many prophecies from Finance experts regarding the state of the global economy in the near future due to government mis-mangagement, retiring baby boomers withdrawing their investments for their pensions, the US credit crunch and many other factors.
Despite the government and the Bank of England reassuring Northern Rock customers that their money is safe and the bank is solvent, very few people believe what is perceived as facts. Northern Rock allegedly hasn’t even drawn down on the emergency funds that they requested from the BoE as yet and it looks like the bank’s own customer will increase the likelihood of collapse for the country’s 5th largest mortgage lender.
So when did we stop believing in whatever the government tells us? We elect a government based on their manifesto (lies in some cases), expect them to act on our behalf, and then when they advise us to do or not to do something we don’t take their advice. I’m not saying if this is good or bad, it’s just my observation.
I think that the masses stopped believing in their governments (in the western world) since the fall-out of 9/11. Inaccuracies, mis-information and conspiracy theories led lots of people to distrust those of authority who are supposed to act in our best interests. In the UK, people still remember quite clearly the Equitable life and Robert Maxwell fiascos and many people are still suffering from the loss of value of their pensions. In this increasingly uncertain age how do we protect ourselves and our loved ones? What do these economic alerts mean for the short and mid term future?
I’m a contractor in Marketing and Advertising and I’m a little nervous about what this means cos when business gets a little shaky, the first resource to go is marketing as it’s seen to be a costly business expense after wages. PR staff tend to survive for a bit longer.
I’m seeing the same indicators of the last slow-down/recession but no-one is saying the R word: lots of shops for sale on the high street, job cuts in large companies etc. Yet the high street consumer sales still seem to be strong, the house market is slowing marginally but still growing and I believe business confidence is still strong. But for how long?
Not wanting to bring doom and gloom, but it makes me all the more confident and reassured that by working on my own projects to increase my streams of income is the right thing to do. And that way I can recession-proof myself in as many ways as possible. Once I’ve worked this out, I want to share it, because the US sub-prime market crisis, the Global credit crunch and the Northern Rock panic is perhaps just a blip. But there is more to come and we should get educated to understand how that will actually affect us now and in the long term.
As the economy historically has shown trends in regular cycles, many people are expecting history to repeat itself again. Maybe it will, or maybe it won’t. I’m leaning more to won’t as we’re in a different age now and the power is shifting from the authorities and governments to individuals, in terms of money that is. What I’d really like to understand are the ‘what if’ scenarios and how that will affect me and how I may help others. Not sure how, but I’m sure I can work this out.
I think this is the ‘All change’ that so many financial experts and economists have talked about for a while. It’s filtering down to everyday people and because of our general lack of understanding, financial education and trust for authority, we’re unsure what to do and how to react wisely.
All change means that we should now start to control and maintain our money and assets and not leave it up to our fund managers, bank managers without truly understanding what we’re getting ourselves into.
All change means that we now need to give up the one income stream model cos we have no guarantees in life and companies are no longer loyal to their employees, their shareholders generally come top of the list.
All change means getting off the bus right now and finding your own means of transport. But after I get through this damned to-do list!
