http://grinding.be/2011/09/12/uk-riots-and-the-f-word/

"If the young are not initiated in to the village, they will burn it down just to feel its warmth." ~African ProverbThis vernacular video documentary does an almost perfect job sketching out the complexity of ( Read more... )

CNBC (Article by Financial Times)
Britain Must Escape Its Longest DepressionThe current UK depression will be the longest since at least the first world war. Without a dramatic surge in growth, it is also quite likely to generate a bigger cumulative loss of output than the “great depression”. All this is disturbing enough. What is even more ( Read more... )

Moody's
Consumer Spending Held Up in the First Quarter
The spike in retail gas prices came late, limiting the damage.

Rising energy prices didn't deter U.S. consumers in the first quarter of 2011, but that may be changing. As retail gasoline prices cross the psychological threshold of $4 per barrel, the hit to both confidence and spending could be ( Read more... )

This bodes quite ill for the United Kingdom's recovery, especially so as this report comes on the heels of official data that shows that UK GDP actually contracted in the final quarter of 2010.

Wall Street Journal
U.K. Retail Sales Plunged Last Month
LONDON-U.K. retailers suffered their worst fall in sales in at least 16 years in March, ( Read more... )

The Telegraph
UK consumer confidence crashes to record low

The Chancellor suffered a setback ahead of next week's Budget, as leading surveys showed consumer confidence has hit a record low while Britons' expectations for climbing prices have reached their highest in more than two years.


( Read more... )

The First Post

Pressure on Cameron grows as double dip looms


( Read more... )

The Telegraph

Bank of England chief Mervyn King:
standard of living to plunge at fastest rate since 1920s

Households face the most dramatic squeeze in living standards since the 1920s,
the Governor of the Bank of England warned, as he reacted to the shock disclosure that the economy was shrinking again.

Families will see their disposable income eaten ( Read more... )

The Economist: Recovery, if it continues, won't feel like one

The lean year
The economic recovery hasn’t been derailed (yet).
Even so, for many people it is unlikely to feel very buoyant

AS THE coalition government drew up its detailed plans to cut public spending last autumn, in order to deal with Britain’s swollen budget deficit, the economic ( Read more... )

The first estimate of fourth quarter 2010 Gross Domestic Product in the UK "shocked" economists and politicos, when the ONS released a decidedly negative print on growth, reigniting fears that UK's recovery remains especially vulnerable to austerity measures being enacted so close on the heels of a recession that by many measures was worse than ( Read more... )

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Note To Mods: Better make 'Portugal', 'Spain' and 'Euro Zone' tags. I suspect we're gonna need 'em.