..Exponentially worse..

"In Germany, Europe's largest economy and a manufacturing powerhouse,industrial output slumped 10 percent on the year, its fastest pace of decline since 1993. In France, it fell a record 9 percent. And in Spain, by 15.1percent. "
If you are not worried yet, you ought to be. The difference is Germany has a current account surplus.
Read the whole article here.

How to kill a country....

The Speccie Coffee House has an article about Ann Rand and Atlas Shrugged. I can't say I either enjoyed or liked the book - her style is too verbose and dull to make it an enjoyable read in itself.
The posit is that a depression forces the US Government to take over swathes of industry and as a result of bureaucracies running the companies they eventually die.
You might notice some similarities to what's happening today, and the total control exercised by Communist governments over their now defunct industries.
The problem is - as I have long argued - Economics answers everything.
That is why it's so wrong that there have been the bailouts in the way they have been promulgated. Even if every bank went bust, new ones would very rapidly spring up. Yes it would be horrific for a period, but it would be all right afterwards. What we have now will be a lingering death.
If you have no incentive to do anything other than cover your backside, tick boxes, and serve your time, you end up with cases like Baby P - every box, every avenue was legalistically covered, yet the baby died horrifically.
So lets hear it for Entrepreneurship and risk taking. Even on a small scale it will make the world go round.

This is going to get exponentially worse..

What would you say is the most efficient manufacturing industry in Britain?
You might be astonished to learn it is the car industry, which, post the demise of British Leyland ( and in truth before as well) has surpassed the expectations of it's mostly Japanese masters.
Now a little bird tells me things are so bad worldwide that even these most efficient of plants ( Honda, Nissan,Toyota) are getting rid of contractors that cost them nothing to get rid off and the graduate trainees, even from 2 years ago, have their heads on the chopping block. This from companies that pride themselves on retaining loyal staff and "working through" problems.
I suppose drops of 35-40% in sales is enough to ruin any business plan ( I always liked the projections people do showing 10% variation; if it works it will be much better than 10% UP, if it doesn't it will be bust.)
Nissan has a research facility near Milton Keynes with 600 odd people working on projects.
The word has gone out from HR that on 19th January there is to be a big meeting in Japan to decide on worldwide cutbacks. Nissan currently has 2 advance projects on the go, one in UK and one in Japan. One or other will get the chop.
I'm not sure why they are having the meeting - I can tell you now which one will go.
Update:
Told you it would get worse

..The Yellow Leaf..*

So it's back to work this morning for lots of people, and anything more depressing would be hard to find.
Not only will the date on which we start to keep some of our money be further away ( Last year it was, I think,towards the end of June - it'll be well into July this year) but everyone you speak to was either ill over the festive ( Ha!) period or is trying to borrow money from you.
Perhaps now is a time to rethink one's life. Out with the 9 to 5, in with the Yoga teacher, the second hand book dealer, the Gypsy rover, or the writer, whatever.
People talk of women undergoing the " change", I'm sure we all need change to develop and grow.
I was at a dinner party recently where the talk was all entirely banal, until one of the other men present started quoting poetry - and French poetry at that. I wish I could say it lit up the party. Unfortunately, most of the people there couldn't speak French, didn't understand poetry or, in some cases, read more than the headlines in the local paper - and the deaths' column of course. Don't want to miss a good feed do we?
Anyway, the French speaker and I were able to have a jolly conversation, out of which came the view that he wouldn't be the person he was had he not done an Open University course some years ago, which had opened his eyes to poetry for the first time.
Not too sure what I shall be doing to branch off in a new direction. Perhaps work as an elderly rent collector? Oh, yes, I'm doing that already....
* In case you don't know this is a Shakespearean quote .Macbeth Act 5, scene 3, lines 22-23. But then, maybe this might set you on a new path.....