Monday, June 25, 2007

Double indemnity

Dan Atkinson in the Mail on Sunday begins with what seems to be praise for the Chancellor's control of the economy, but goes on to note our growing indebtedness. The Bank of England figures he cites, comparing January 2000 with April 2007, show an increase in combined mortgage and consumer debt of around 116%; earnings rose only 31.7% over the same period.

To put it another way, as I calculate it, average indebtedness, adjusted for earnings, has increased by 63.9%. That's an awful lot of future spending power thrown away. The UK appears to have similar problems to the USA.

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