The price of oil

I believe that a recession is technically defined as two quarters of negative growth. I believe that is more than possible. I'm not suggesting it is necessarily likely - but I'd not bet against seeing a recession within the next few years either.

I can't see it! And i think if people stopped listening to the media, who have a self interest in giving you the worst possible analysis of everything to sell advertising, people would stop scaring themselves into a recession. If the USA doesn't go through a recession with all of their issues, there is no way Australia which is in a much better financial position will go through one.

I'd be more worried about China's economy going off the rails. That will put a quick stop to the demand for much of our resources - which will see our economy slow down quite a lot.

Again, I'm not suggesting this is necessarily likely ... I'm not an expert on the Chinese economy by any stretch of the imagination.

By the time China slows down someone else will want our dirt. But i agree, i'm not an expert, although i've heard Burton Malkiel's book is very good on the subject, hopefully i'll get around to reading it shortly.

[quote=bennymarsh;62675]Australia is NOT heading for a recession! I don't know how anyone can suggest we are within a decade of a recession?????? Just because interest rates are high doesn't mean the economy will slow to such a state that we go into a recession.



New Zealand were probably thinking the same only a few months ago, now they are on the brink.

Lommier posted a comment and deleted it. I was just going to reply that we don't charge anyone anything unless they invest with us, so it is free to come and have a chat with us to look over the redundancy, and i'm still not seeing any in the private sector.

Edit: there it is 2 below this comment!

[quote=lorrimer;62687] NZ is always going to struggle going forward if they stay independent. They are too small an economy playing in what is becoming the biggest economic pool. Their best hope is that this pacific community proposed by Rudd comes off. There is nothing they can produce in NZ to the scale that even we can, and economies of scale will always do better over the long run.

We're getting a long way from oil aren't we

With respect, somebody who has just been made redundant is unlikely to spend a couple of hundred dollars visiting a financial planner. As you say in tough times one has to cut their cloth accordingly.

Sorry, had a bit of trouble trying to respond to your points within the quote, so deleted and tried again.
Anyway good to hear that you don't charge for a consultation. However I do believe that the perception of most people would be that it would cost them money to seek financial advice and would therefore avoid doing so.

Their stock market has already dropped 50% this year with inflation running at 13.5% I believe.
The bubble has already started to deflate, hopefully the RBA will take this into consideration before hiking rates again.