Gordon Clown .Com

The outlook for our friends across the pond appears to be looking bleaker by the day, as an economy fed by rampant house price inflation on a scale never seen before, and subsequent mortgage equity withdrawl, looks to be heading into reverse at a very rapid pace. What is surprising is not that the US housing market has popped after 17 consecutive rate rises by the Federal Reserve, but that the rapid U-turn in sentiment has been so widely reported by the British press, who have been well known to keep any bearish housing market stories under wraps in their bid to sell papers. Some commentators are drawing sinister conclusions as to what may be in store for the American people in general, should their recession prove particularly bad. Still, I suppose just because it is happening in America, that shouldn’t affect Britain in any way, should it?

Gordon is certainly hoping so. Against all the odds, perhaps the oft-used proverb that when “America sneezes, the world catches a cold” will not apply to us this time. This is clearly highly unlikely. The prospect of a deep recession in America is highly likely to send the economies of various overheated debt-laden nations, not least Britain, into sharp reverse as well. It does seem, based on this recent statistic-laden article, that debt in Brown’s Britain continues to rampantly charge onward and upward, making the recent 0.25% interest rate rise look rather woeful and pathetic, with surely more to follow. The press, of course, not wishing to be the bearer of bad news, will likely seek to deny this fact as long as possible, and instead continue with the time honoured tradition of only reporting certain economic downturns well after the story is already old. Can Gordon reach Number 10 before Britain begins to show the symptoms of America’s economic strife? If not, surely Blair will lay the blame firmly at Number 11, and it will be goodbye Gordon.