Hey all,

Just wondering how the current economic climate has it impacted upon your life. Have you had to reduce you spending and set tighter budgets? Starting to save instead of spending. You are now starting to fear the uncertain future that lays in front of us all. You might continue in a job position that you hate because the chances of finding another job are slim to none at the moment.

I am interested in hearing about your experiences.

Peace Out. Hopefully good times can return sooner than expected.

BTW: I am so #$@#@$ annoyed that a few scumbags have stuffed up the world economies and we are all having to endure tough times.  The ones who are responsible for this financial crisis should be hunted down like the dogs that they are.

The recession has resulted in me not being able to find a job when I completed my accounting degree and graduated from Business School three months ago. I have started another course in a different field. I am now doing an oil and gas technician course and hopefully I will secure emplyment upon completion of my two year advanced diploma course.

You don't need to hunt them down, they all sit in Congress. Find the ones that defended Freddy and Fanny over the years, and there you have it. Report after report entered Congress about what they were doing, and the millions entering congress peoples pockets kept it going.

I have only been impacted in two way. One, my company did not give out bonuses this year. That's a loss of 2-3 grand, as my girlfriend works there as well.

Two, Inflation will soon be on the rise (it already is). When you print money you don't have, you increase inflation. Inflation is a tax (mostly on the poor). This tax is starting to enter my budget.

Aside from those two things, I am not impacted at all.

P.S. You never said how it impacted you. Did it make you run out of shirts? (making fun of your avatar)

I'm a student, so fortunately I am in school at the ideal time, right in the middle of a recession. I'll graduate in 2011, by which we will almost certainly have started recovering.

I'm not affected by the economic situation right now. I happen to be working in one of the most booming parts of North America right now, and there doesn't appear to be any signs of the economic growth going on here slowing down.

I am not personally affected by the economic situation.

Mafoo is mostly correct. If you want to blame the most guilty of the groups, it would be the congress that gave far too much power to give away junk mortgages. Much of this mess is thanks to the congressmen, senators and president that voted for the 'Community Reinvestment Act' of 1999. The vote passed the Senate by a vote of 90-8 and Congress by 365-57, and was also signed by President Clinton.

No one is really fault-less in this process. Republicans voted on the CRA1999 bill - even more so than the Dems did. The bankers were idiots in giving out the money, and the people were stupid for not doing their homework and realizing the predatory lending practices that were going on.

As for me, I am not effected by the situation. I own some rental properties, and hope to own more in the future, as this recession is allowing for some great deals on the housing market.

Im only affected from being stupid with credit cards in my 20s. Still paying them off.

I do plan on finally starting to sock some money away for bigger things, like a house, etc.

Been made Redundant a couple of months ago.

Been poor since leaving college. Water/Gas/Electricity all rationed in my house. Only 5 hot meals a week (which I give to my mother, she needs them more than me), cant afford entertainment so its all pirated, mum can't afford time off work or medication even though she's sick, can't afford dentist appointments, no heating in my house, can't afford new clothes for past year or anytime in the future, virtually no job prospects, can't afford bus fare (live in town that has nothing but houses, nearest town is a £6 one way bus ticket) to go anywhere, quite a few other things too

I agree people were stupid for buying something they could not afford, but the banks were being incentivized by government for giving the loans. If banks gave a certain percentage of subprime loans, then they got a better deal on all their loans. It was Congresses way of putting poor people into homes.

That would have worked if people only bought homes they could afford. They didn’t. They used the constant increase in home values to buy homes they could not afford, gambling that when there payment went above what they could pay, that they could just refinance and use the increased value to do the same thing all over again. That only works until home builders meet demand for an ever increasing home owner base. Before the “Community Reinvestment Act' of 1999”, home ownership was a constant 60% of the population. When builders finally caught up, it was 75%. That means 20% of home owners had loans that if banks were left to their own devices, would have never given. Banks traditionally are not in the business of throwing good money after bad.

For years Congress got reports from independent auditors telling them that Fanny and Freddie were in trouble. Congress chose to ignore it. Telling a booming economy that subprime lending has to stop, and people who should not buy a home now can’t, is not in fashion. Waiting until it’s too late and then blaming everyone else seems to be though.