The ‘great recession’ is over, or is it?

The recession is over, we can all rejoice in surviving the “great recession”. But if a recession was that easy what were we all worrying about?

The truth is we are no where near the end of this recession, despite the recent surge of bright economic news in recent weeks. Whilst stock markets may have turned a corner it is well known that they rally long before the real economy does. Unemployment is still rising and that along with GDP should be the key indicator of a nations economic health.

So why the optimism? (more…)

Student Loans abolished

This week our unelected Government pushed through legislation to abolish student loans. Unfortunately this doesn’t mean you don’t have to repay, it’s just becoming more of a tax rather than a loan! So what exactly have they done?

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Little reward for my efforts on eBay

Whilst some might be raking in the cash for their unwanted goods, all my efforts on eBay this month seemed about as successful as selling a random selection of goods under the brand Woolworths!

Having spent the best part of a day listing over 50 items, painstakingly photographing them and writing the descriptions I was hoping for a good return.

However only 9 sold for a total of £45.14 and after eBay fees, PayPal fees and postage left me with a profit of just £24.30. Which is disappointing to say the least.

I don’t think there was anything wrong with the items, and with starting prices of just 99p they were not overpriced so I think this might be another symptom of the current recession. I don’t think it’s demand that’s dropping, but rather a case of over-supply.

Everywhere I look there is another how-to guide screaming for attention with titles like “How-to beat the Credit Crunch”, “Recession Busting Tips” or my personal favourite “Happy credit-crunch Christmas”. And just about everyone of these imaginatively suggests making some extra cash by selling your unwanted goods on eBay.

So lesson learnt. The ‘herd’ are now on eBay so I’ll wait for the recession to end and the ‘herd’ to move on to the next frenzied bubble.

If I were Chancellor….

I’d probably be rather stressed right now if I were in Alistair Darling’s position. He finds himself preceding over the most difficult budget in a generation as we are arguably close to entering a depression.

So what do I think he will do? And what would I do?

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Standing up for my rights no matter how much is at stake

I recently signed up for a membership with one of the largest sporting bodies in the country which would give me access to tickets at their new stadium (you can probably guess which organisation I am talking about!). My annual membership fee of £50 promised access to some of the biggest sporting events in the country from just £99 and proudly listed them off.

I was therefore very disappointed when I logged in to discover that tickets were not available for some of the events they had promised and absolutely furious when I discovered that prices ranged from £179 to £399 for the events they had originally mentioned in their email. So within hours of signing up I fired off a complaint by email requesting a refund.

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