Prudence

Guido points out that bankruptcies and house repossessions are running at terrible levels - triple the level of the 1991-2 recession. They don't call Gordon Brown "Prudence" for nothing.



UPDATE: Tim points out in the comments that a recent change in bankruptcy legislation will change incidence - a very fair point. Since I was vaguely aware of this, it was a sloppy post. Looking it up, I see that bankruptcy has been made less onerous, which is likely to skew the figures upwards. It's still unlikely to be entered into lightly, I'd guess, but historical comparisons become less meaningful. I seem to recall, also reading some speculation that people with student loans - which have been introduced since 1992 - have declared themselves bankrupt in the (perhaps mistaken) idea that it's a get-out-of-jail-free card.