Okay I pulled into the petrol station at 5:30am this morning. The tank had between empty and a quarter already in it. After putting £25 in the tank the needle just about made it to three quarters full, I drive a little Fiesta for JHC sake. It’ll cost between £30 - £35 to fill my car now, which means in a space of less than eight years petrol prices have doubled. Back when I was a student in Bradford it would cost me £15 to fill my 1400cc Ford Orion, that was in 2001 – 2002.

It seems down our way, petrol is going up week by week now. It used to be so a price would stick for a few months before going up. But now every time I pull into the petrol station it seems a penny or two is added on. I predict if this continues then by the end of 2009 you will be looking at £2 a litre in some parts of the country.

It’s not just fuel, food prices are being hiked up, I’m considering getting a bread maker, and stealing some of my Father’s garden off him so I can grow my own veg and stuff.

Since the credit crunch is forever in the news now, perhaps the moderators on this site would consider giving it its own section like China and the likes at the top of the news and current affairs forum.

How much is petrol a litre where you live, its £1.06.9 down here in sunny south wales

I just checked mine on petrolprices.com for unleaded

The Highest price in this area: 110.9p
The Average price in this area: 109.6p
The Lowest price in this area: 108.9p

Costs me £40 a week and i cant afford much more.

Also JC, i've changed the topic title slightly and pinned the thread so its always at the top, as you suggested as its a good idea

I heard with dismay on the news last night, that Persimmon The UKs largest house builder is taking on no more new housing contracts, due to the fact they cannot sell them (prices too high).

This is the biggest indicator that things are just not working we have yet seen. The building industry is always the first to suffer in a recession (We are basically a luxury trade) and the last to recover.

Persimmon doing what it is doing is going to have knock-on effects too, with the country flooded with cheap labour, and a whole slew of builders now scratching for work...just watch the slow but steady rise in the unemployment figures.


Oh, and house prices rising again because of demand.

Bloody Hell as Ron Weasley would say. I reckon by the end of the year you’ll be looking at £1.50 per litre in your area Scorpio. Waitrose are selling petrol at £1.05.9 here, and you should see the queue on the forecourt. My poor girlfriend has to work in the petrol station sometimes, and some customers blame her for the petrol price rise. Isn’t it annoying when some people get angry over something like this they always blame the person least responsible. I was looking at this graph earlier to see how much prices have risen in the last decade.



I reckon the big oil companies aren’t telling us enough about how much oil is left in the ground. With the way we as a planet are consuming it I reckon the outlook is bleak. Petrol is going up by 5p+ a litre every month in some areas. Just on the phone to a friend and told him how lucky he was to live and work in the same town. But he still uses his car for a THREE minute journey to work, but even he is having to concede that he will have to use a bicycle he has had for FOUR years but has never ridden. I live about eight miles from where I work, and I’m thinking about getting a racer bike for the summer. I have thought about sharing a lift, however the only person that works in the same place and is from Abergavenny drives a bloody big 4x4. I have worked out that if we split the cost from week to week, it’ll cost me more every other week to run his 4x4 than filling my car to the top, because it costs £60+ to fill. You can’t bloody win can you.

I can run my little Fiesta on £20 if need be, that’s cutting out travelling ten miles to a big super market once or twice a week and using local small supermarkets and other shops to do our shopping.

These oil giants and the major governments of the world are going to be faced with a stark choice within the next decade. Either they can fight for the last drop of oil, or they can work together to refining renewable energy sources. We live in a world we can to the most amazing things technology wise, so why don’t we stop investing billions into seeing how much technological crap you can stick in a mobile phone, and invest that money into saving our arses from a global energy meltdown.

As for that house building company Persimmon announcing that they’re not taking on any more building that doesn’t surprise me. And the rise in property prices you mentioned HQ, it’s only going to be short lived because the demand you mentioned is going to dry up simply because no one will want to sell for fear of losing thousands off the value off a property.

Personally I blame channel 4 and trashy morning TV. For the past decade all four main TV channels have been guilty of flooding our TV sets with programs that glamorise buying houses and making out how you can make a fortune. And I can’t believe that despite the current property market climate, with thousands of homeowners struggling to keep up their mortgage payments and thousands more facing repossession BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are still producing these programs, talk about rubbing salt into the wound. (Okay let’s take a deep breath here)

This is just the beginning folks, the Bank of England, Federal Reserve and all the other world banks can print off as much money as they want to try and halt this financial onslaught but in the end the money they print off will be as worthless as a saucepan made of ice cream.

Visited Asda today, and I was barely able to find a parking space. Sometimes it seems as if people have never heard of the credit crunch. People were shopping as if was going out of fashion when I walked in. I think it could have something to do with this strike going on at the Grangemouth oil refinery. But that way up North, we have a depot down at Milford Haven unless they’ve gone out to.
Panic buying has started to sink in, in the south.

A touch of 'micro-management' by banks that is just not needed.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle3818913.ece

So am I allowed to snear when I hear the line from the government that everything is still hunky dory?

Yea your allowed,

It seems that this movement of no buy-to-let maybe help prices but in the long run thew housing demand may stop and you have houses left, and who can buy them without the required amount.

Buyers-to-letters will return to snap up to remaining houses.

In yesterdays paper, it was either The Mail or the Express, i cant remember, but they are tipping you will shortly paying five pounds a litre, you think its bad now, just give it a month or two.

Hmm.... a bit of a glum prediction.

Here's the thing, what would the powers that be who run these oil companies have to gain by forcing people off the road. There will have to come a day when I'm going to have to switch my mode of transport. And I think it’s safe to say that will be within the next ten years.

When petrol does reaches the £2 a litre I think a lot of people will start think about the way they get about. Public transport will be too expensive. There’s obviously method to the price hiking madness, and it’s not just making a quick buck.

Blame it on the Chinese.

Why?

Because they are the main cause of increased demand for oil, which has caused the price to rise.

Dont think so, the missing links, have been mass producing goods for years, the Fuel prices have only just started rising at the this rate. All China are doing, is using the fuel, that other country's have stopped using, since China has taken work from the other manufacturers.

Or are you telling us that China uses more fuel in their brand new latest technological factories than other previous manufacturers?

And even if they were, who was it, that went over to the missing links, and talked them in to Capitalism, can you guess which country had that bright idea?

Can you tel us which country it was that caused the loss of jobs all around the world to China?

What I'm saying is a fact.

You incorrectly presuppose the world economy has not been growing, which it has.

No country "caused the loss of jobs all around the world to China."

IMHO Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown is doing a good job despite things that were not they're fault. We cannot blame them for the state of our economy. I blame the immigrants and the irish for the IRA and what they did for us in the eighties.

Yes China are using a lot of natural resources at the moment, so are india and the rest of the world for that matter.
All of a sudden products have risen sharply in price, I'd call it a price leap. Not just petrol but food as well, yet electronics are becoming cheaper. Asda have just put a mobile phone on the market for £5, that's cheaper than a packet of ciggies.

Christmas will be a big test this year, if there is a global slow down, then high street stores are in for a good hammering at crimbo.

One mans facts are another mans fiction, the truth is what you believe




The worlds economy over the last few months has been reducing, ever since some bloody country thought it was a good idea to lend morgage's to people who they knew could not afford them, but the fuel prices arestill rising, and rising at a faster rate then edver before.

Sub prime Morgage's remember, now which country was it that kicked off this present recesion, we are now galloping in to? Can you guess?



Do you really think so? Come on now, think really really hard, Which American President went over to the missing links, and persuaded them to take up Capitalim, ile give you a clue, (he liked young women sucking his Dick) got it now?

Now who kicked off this reccession, with their dumb arsed sub prime morgage's?

The world economy has been growing since China's emergence as an economic power.

No one "convinced" the Chinese to adopt capitalism; they finally saw the light on their own.

And which recession? Do you know the definition of "recession"?

Food prices have risen steeply owing in large part to the "global warming" paranoia, which has caused the diversion of grains to make ethanol rather than food.

Afraid z your wrong, Clinton was the man, who conned the Chinks in to Capitalism



Hows that below grab you for a definition, any Robin Hood.


recession = noun

1 the act of receding or state of being set back.

2 econ a temporary decline in economic activity, trade and prosperity.

3 the departure of the clergy and choir after a church service. 4 part of a wall, etc that recedes.

Are you saying that does fit the bill?


We are in recession right now, but it will get much worse, thanks to your mob, and sub prime Mortgages, its always you mob....er accept the one time when Russia had a pop at Americanism, and rather successful at that so they were.

To be honest, that is going to turn out to be the worst move since Custer said "Don't worry guys, it's just a few injuns."
Some things should be left alone.

An economic recession is a contraction of the economy evidenced by negative growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two consecutive quarters (i.e., six months).

If there is any growth in GDP -- any positive number above zero -- then the economy is not in recession.

The data for the first quarter of 2008 indicate that America's GDP grew at a 0.6% annual pace. Link: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9...;show_article=1

A robust annual growth rate for the American economy is in the range of 4.0% to 5.0%.

The recent data do indicate that the American economy is very sluggish, but do not evidence a recession.

Given that the public sector (the U.S. government) is financing two wars, the credit crisis in the private sector and the steep increases in oil and food prices, that there is any positive growth is a testament to the resilience of the American economy.

It is possible (many say probable) that there will be at least a mild recession in the near future, but there isn't one now.

Okay why don’t we back up a bit here and take a breather. It’s all too easy these days to play the blame game. ‘It’s China’s fault because they’re an emerging super power’ ‘It’s the fault of the Americans because of their unprecedented lending spree in the subprime mortgage market’ I think these two points are only part of the problem.

People’s money lending has been spiralling out of control for well over a decade. It’s not just the banks that have been struggling. Loan companies have been hit hard. They have been encouraging people to get large loans out, and before you know it half the people they have given money to can’t pay it back and then out come the county court judgements. The government in recent years have made it all too easy to declare bankruptcy, all though I don’t think it’s the case now. Nevertheless people have been using this tactic like a get out of jail free card. There are ways then you can put you credit rating back on track and clear you name, before you know it hey presto you’re lending again.

A lot of people will tell you ‘Yes greed is a huge cause for the credit crunch’ However I think people these days are easily duped into borrowing money especially when loan companies come with smiles. I’m forever getting junk mail from Provident who tell me that I could always do with a little bit of spare cash (Couldn’t we all) I’ve been meaning to phone them up and tell them to bugger off. And when you get told ‘Oh and the repayments are only twenty pounds a month’ It’s all too tempting, especially for those on low income’ I know someone who is up to her neck and she’s a pensioner, I have been telling her to go down to the citizens advice Bureau for some advice but she wont.

I see the Federal Reserve has just cut its key interest rate from 2.25% to 2.0% in an attempt to head off a recession. It’s like jumping out of an aeroplane and trying to slow your fall without the aid of a parachute. It wouldn’t surprise me if they have to cut rates again in the near future. And the Bank of England stated that fears over the current financial climate may have been a little exaggerated. If you ask me they try to prevent people panicking. I mean come on if the public are unwilling to lend then how are banks going to make money.

I see petrol has now hit the £5.00 a gallon mark. Hey Zoro just out of curiosity how much is it a gallon you side of the pond?

I don't have a car -- don't need one living in the city.

But I was curious about the answer to your question, so I looked it up and found an AP news story dated April 24, 2008 which states as follows:

"At the pump, the average national price of a gallon of regular jumped 2.3 cents overnight to $3.56 a gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices have risen nearly 14 cents in a week."

I'm pretty sure it's not higher than $4 a gallon in New York.

That's incredibly expensive for the U.S., but it sounds dirt cheap compared to what you're paying.

One gallon is equal to 3.7854 liters so you paying roughly 50pence - 60pense per litre, you lucky so and so's. Do you self a favour zoro, advise anyone over there not to rent a car in the UK, you're looking $10 a gallon over here.

Thats your biased definition, mine definition was from an unbiased thesaurus. We are in a recession, and its getting deeper by the month.

A recession is an economic contraction.

That is my educated definition: I have a university degree in Economics.

That is the basic definition universally recognized by anyone with even the slightest clue about Economics.

It is also the basic definition used in the news story linked in my post above. Link: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9...;show_article=1

And here's an apt quote from today's Financial Times:

"Claiming recession while economic output is expanding is like diagnosing a patient with the sniffles as having pneumonia.”

Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5613dfbc-16af-11...00779fd2ac.html

If there is any positive GDP growth whatsoever, an economy is not in recession.

The United States economy has not contracted; it has grown, albeit very slightly.

Class dismissed.

Petrol has just jumped from 1.06.9 to 1.08.9 in my local garage. It started off at 99.9p a litre at the beginning of the year, that a rise of about 10p in the last four months alone, so we could be looking at 1.30.9 per litre by the end of the year.

I know this may sound like a tedious exercise but everyone keep an eye on the rise in petrol prices. We're all more or less dotted all over the UK on this forum so we should be able to get varied results. Then we’ll see where we are at the end of the year. So I'll start the bidding.

Waitrose Petrol Station, Abergavenny 1st May £1.08.9 per litre
Any advances.

i seen a few at £1.11p up north (and even higher)

I saw it £1.12 yesterday

Why not horse driven cars (like in Borat's intro)

I guess your joking fire, but thats not a bad idea, all local deliveries could be done by horse and cart, and then all food should be grown locally, shoes and clothes should be made locally, tools, could be made by the local Blacksmith, in fact just about all our needs could be produced locally think how much that help the atmosphere. As old satchmo sang "what a wonderful world".


Any one think ime off my trolly? Absolutely not, it would work for sure.

Will it happen? NO Why wont it work? Because the scumbags,that run the world, would not then have total control, as they do now with their multinational companies.

Am i Paranoid? or realistic?

In the game Deus Ex, after the collapse two companies/organizations are formed.

One is the WTO (World Trade Organization) for the rich and businessmen)

And the other is the Order, for the poor and those in need of faith.

But get this, they are run by the same group, the Illuminati.

20,000 homes have been repossed in the first three months of this year, that's shocking.

it is bad i have only just bourght my house
x

If you don't mind me asking Kelly what do you do as a living, is it a good wage at the end of the week? If so then I should think you're pretty safe.

i work in IT i sell all it equipment ye i get a very good wage basic for a girl! and then i take about 2 grand a month on top of my wage after tax in commision to give you a idea of what i earn lol
so ye i earn very good money
so i easy afford my morgage
x

As a moderator i am supposed to lead by example and not swear - but i have to say f****n hell!

I hope to make £186,000 a year, guess who gets that much

Another documentary about the housing credit crunch. As usual the BBC are focussing all their attnetion on those who can afford a drop in house prices, and very little attention was given to the couple on the verge of getting thrown out of the house.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7395041.stm

Not good new for consumers, inflation will keep on rising, time to tighten the purse strings folks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7400074.stm

What follows is the sound of a purse string being tightened beyond reasonable capacity once again...



Screeeeeckwhyoing----twang.

Damn it snapped!

I went to Tesco tonight just to pick up a few things. Instead of buying Heinz tomato ketchup I brought Tesco tomato ketchup. I haven’t really noticed the difference, there is one but its just a good on chips as Heinz. I also brought some Tesco soft cheese instead of Philadelphia. The cheaper brad is a little bit more textured but just as nice.

It amazing how we don’t notice how much we are influenced by brand names. After I get back off my holiday I am looking into shopping differently, yes I will by branded washing powder and other products, but the basics like ketchup, coffee, sugar I’ll switch. Another thing I will change is where I shop I have three major supermarkets near me plus a Home and Bargain so I’m going to get selected items from each to see if that lowers my shopping bill. I also plan to visit Aldi sometime to see what they have.

I think any depression will help China as it hurt Germany (and the countries who traded with germany)

I wouldn't try that with toilet paper.

I've been doing that for a long time

Tried Lidl once but i dont think its that much cheaper than where I normally buy, if you take the time to look around at the prices. And plus, at least with them (Tescos for me) you know what you're getting

I always do that - check what value I get for the extra money.
when it comes to brands, in many cases the price is way up, just because they got good comercials.

but when I got to the US I saw how crasy this might become in supermarket chains.
I saw the prices of fruits and vegtables and was amazed - in many cases way higher then anything I consider normal - upto 10 times!!! 10 times - one fuit in the price of a kilo.

and people keep buying because, after all, these are "market prices" set by supply and demand, but of course this is not so.
in Israel people can go to real market, where there is real competition between the prices(setting supply and demand prices), and the chains must keep fair price difference, or most will go to the market. but in the US - prices run wild . . .

Ah but who wants a real market when you can have hundred of varieties of apples in the same place?

that's a real market.
not the chains "huge pile of the same thing"

Speaking of toilet paper there's a place near me called home and bargin don't know if there are many of the in the UK but they're selling 18 rolls of luxury toilet paper for £2.99 and it is good stuff. You're looking at £6+ for that many in any supermarket.

I bet that's the most useful piece of worthless information you guys have heard all year.