^^Thanks for the encouraging words, Kaushik and Tanaji. I fully expect this dhaga to get locked soon and a new one (mark II) take off. Seems I can't keep moiself away from this dhaga for too long anyway. Have been happy to see an irreverent tone preserved throughout the dhaga that results in us not taking things too seriously in here and therefore peace prevails.
Meanwhile, UK-stan pips another milestone (one among many past and more to come, IMHO).
UK Credit Cards, Mortgages & Loans Now Exceed the Value of the UK Economy
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, January 25, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- According to a recent research study by ThinkingMoney, UK Household debt has reached a staggering GBP1.35 trillion in June, more than the country's Gross Domestic Product, which is estimated at GBP1.33 trillion. This means the UK's 60 million people currently owe more than the entire country can produce in one year. With the UK having the seventh largest GDP in the world, this is deeply concerning.
Only to the Brits, the Eurozoners would argue. UK-stan is on only its own too-big-to-fail list and none-other's in the sense that nobody'll rush to extend lines of credit to UK-stan in the event of a sovereign default. That's all.
Those carrying the bulk of the debt include young families and 20-something adults who have just purchased their first home. Today, many members of this demographic carry GBP10,000 to GBP15,000 worth of student debt, in addition to a mortgage that equates to three times their annual income.
The edu bubble burst is a mere year or 2 away from a giant burst. IMHO.
But don't gemme wrong, its not like the sky is falling, like, tomorrow. The game can and will continue a while longer. How much longer can UK linger, who knows? What we do know now is that the happy-glory days are over and not returning in a hurry. Downside is majorly up and upsides are majorly down, now on, for UK-stan among other tfta khanomies.
Thirty years ago, this simply wasn't the case, since mortgages would only require one and three-quarter years worth of income. Also contributing to the problem is wages, which remain relatively unchanged during the past thirty years when compared to the rising costs of living.
Agreed. I recall Liz Warren speaking on the calamitous rise in the cost of living for a given comparable wage for the median US family from the 50s to the mid-2000s. Even in hindsight, hard to see how such massive asset bubbles were lost sight of by those who should've known better (regulators, Fed, economists etc).
As a result, the number of county court judgements for debt, bankruptcies, repossessions, and insolvencies has skyrocketed while credit scores fall. To prevent these problems and improve credit, says Tahera Dudhwala, Editor of ThinkingMoney, consumers need to shop around for their financial products.
Re the bolded part above, thats exactly what the UK-stanis did w.r.t. Icesave of Iceland. We all know how that ended, no? UK-stan drudged out its anti-terror law to freeze Iceland's assets in Uk-stan in a callous act of terror against a fellow tfta.Can you think of what they'd do if their ire were directed at some turd world backwater, eh?
Anyway, Jai Ho.