Sign of Economy in trouble?

[Tuna]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4676636.stm

Man at BBC said:

Nearly 70,000 people became insolvent in 2005, the highest annual total since the 1990s recession, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has said. There were a record 20,461 insolvencies in the final quarter of 2005, a rise of 57% on the same period in 2004. The rise in insolvencies has been blamed on greater personal debt, slow growth and bankruptcy rule changes.

[tomtom]

Probably not a great indicator. I imagine a lot of people see it as an easy way out of their mountains of credit card debt.

[Jaglover]

They changed the law recently to make it easier on people who declare bankruptcy, so I wouldn't read too much into it.

[wolves_wanderer]

tomtom said:

Probably not a great indicator. I imagine a lot of people see it as an easy way out of their mountains of credit card debt.

Yep, it's obviously idiots taking on too much debt and taking the easy way out. There is a big difference between these kind of people going bankrupt and people whose business runs into trouble.

[tinman0]

Jaglover said:

They changed the law recently to make it easier on people who declare bankruptcy, so I wouldn't read too much into it.

plus we have a labour govt so its not that worrying. if it were a tory govt there would be hell to pay and every evening we'd get sob stories about people getting into trouble with their credit cards and having to go bankrupt "you see i just needed to buy this plasma screen - and its all the Govts fault".

[Saied]

The current interest rate cycle has probabaly reached its peak which will help matters somewhat.

Problem is, the present fiscal stance is way too loose for the current stage in the economic cycle owing to Buster Brown's wasteful and excessive expenditure.

This has had the unfortunate effect of keeping interest rates (and thus debt repayments by firms and individuals) higher than they really ought to be.

In a nutshell, poor macroeconomic management by New Labia.

[chris watton]

In simple terms, if people no longer have the disposable income they used to enjoy, they stop buying stuff - in turn the shops where the people used to buy from don't sell stuff, which means they can't pay their bills/rates etc, and they go under. This has happened to no less than five of our larger accounts in the past 12 months or so, and they were all long-standing business's.
Personally, I think we're being taxed, directly and indirectly, way too much, and I believe this is having a very adverse effect on the economy.

[james_j]

tinman0 said:

Jaglover said: They changed the law recently to make it easier on people who declare bankruptcy, so I wouldn't read too much into it. plus we have a labour govt so its not that worrying. if it were a tory govt there would be hell to pay and every evening we'd get sob stories about people getting into trouble with their credit cards and having to go bankrupt "you see i just needed to buy this plasma screen - and its all the Govts fault".

Quite.