http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t1/Military/31391282_0_1.html

说的是美国的次贷, 破产, 以及很多相关的东西

最有意思的是关于破产的部分.

We've had Northern Rock (real) and Halifax (rumored), and now B & B and A & L; who knows which bank is the next? But things are quite different here as housing market is downwards purely because of the extra caution taken by all the banks & building societies. Employment is high (although maybe not in the future) and sub-prime is always there for ages but always small in number. As long as lenders start to loosen their lending criteria, I think we're on the way to recover. BUT if things like inflation and unemployment start to pick up, this can go horribly wrong.

I agree with you, to certain degree

HOWEVER....

1. if the US economy goes down, UK economy will very likely go down with it.

2. the UK banks invest too much in the US sub-prime market related products

3. accounting regulation means lots of loss are off the book, if the current regulation changes(which is being proposed), the real loss will show up and shock us all

Yep, but don't be too pessimistic in UK economy just yet It is still growing, but in a lower rate though still encouraging given what has already happened, credit crunch, housing market slowdown, government spending cut etc. People in the US are already talking if their economy is in recession, technically; but ours are still in good shape, if you only look at figures. Sometimes I just feel puzzled how on earth this country can still grow and what industry is leading the growth, other than finance and service. But the fact is there's something in the economy that supports economics growth.

Anyway I'd be happy if we can get tax refund like US did :0 Lower tax would be good too.

*UK economy only grew 0.2% in the second quarter. Wouldn't say it is in good shape.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/economy/default.stm

*Credit Crunch is not easy to go away. The housing market might be sluggish for a while.

*Simple composition of UK economy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom
More detailed 2007 Blue book: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/the...ok_2007_web.pdf [go to page 89 (98 out 286 on pdf)]

Roughly service sector (including 25% from real estate) accounts for 75% of the UK economy. Looks precarious as well.

do not just look at figures, figues always tells you the thing you want to see