What does the New Year hold for you?
As we move towards 2010 many people are still concerned about their mortgages, every day bills, employment and their financial strength. While the headlines in some of the financial press would appear to indicate that the recession is over, financial hardship will still follow many people into 2010 with some experts predicting a massive increase in bankruptcies for at least the next 18 months. So is the worst actually over?
If you think of the UK recession as a hurricane, true, the worst of the wind and the weather may well be over but now we have the task of clearing-up after what has been the longest recession in the UK since the 1930s. There is no doubt that lasting damage has been done to the UK economy, and the reputation of the UK government, but now we need to look at the task of clearing-up the damage and attempting to put the UK economy back on an even keel.
Those who expect a short sharp bounce back into the boom and bust cycle we have seen so many times will be sadly disappointed. It could take up to a decade for the UK economy, and the UK finances, to recover from this latest recession and there will be more pain in the shape of tax rises and public sector investment reductions to come.
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