Tuesday 24 April 2012

The one chart that encapsulates recent British economic history


It is a chart that never ceases to amaze me.

7 comments:

Jim said...

It would be interesting to see UK GDP superimposed on it. My guess is that most of the growth in the economy post about 2002 came from the growth in house prices being monetised by equity withdrawal.

Electro-Kevin said...

...and adjusted for inflation.

Jo said...

What inflation?

Donno about you but my £ buys more now than it did in 2000.

Jim said...

@Jo: I'm not sure which sort of £ you have in your pocket, but the one in mine buys considerably less now than it did in 2000. Petrol was in the 70-80p/litre range, gas & electric prices similarly lower, food cost a lot less too. The costs of basic items for living have soared in the last 10 years, particularly in the last 3-4, since sterling devalued. Anything that is imported, or has a large energy component to its price has gone through the roof. The only thing that hasn't is electronic goods, which is great if you want a big telly, but thats not much use to eat or heat your home with.

Electro-Kevin said...

I suspect Jo may be on a favourable base-linked tracker mortgage.

Jim said...

Well that may be the case EK, but that doesn't mean the £ in her/his pocket buys more than it did in 2000. It just means (at the moment) there are more of them in her/his pocket. If interest rates rose and the monthly mortgage payment tripled, would that mean petrol would suddenly cost triple the amount it does now?

Anonymous said...

And the longer term real house price chart going back into the 50's tells more still - house price inflation only began around 1959. I suppose that's when inflation crept in to the currency, and since it has been used by cynical governments as a tool of rubbish economic policies, alongside the Tory credit bubbles (see the house price graphs), and then the Blair one.

Blah - why do we put up with these garbage public school boys who function by privilege in a country which can't give everyone a decent education so we can have a real economy and industrial base rather than Oxbridge fools who like to sit at desks in the City and make banking bubbles rather than do useful things for the country? And now the current pair are stealing by inflation and more from all the decent people who have savings and have paid into pensions to pay for the blunderings of their overpaid below-average intelligence public school friends who went from no-experience-of-the-real-world in Oxbridge to I'm-going-to-screw-up-the-world-because-I-can't-see-financial-reality city slicker financial jobs in the City and messed everything. Rubbish education system > rubbish economy!

From Grammar School Tyke!!!!!!