The Great Recession round 2

I've read news articles suggesting both that we're clear of the recessions, and that we're not, and the Conservatives in the (UK) government were talking about more "austerity". So that probably means there are more bad news to come.

We have salary negotiations at work every year around this time. I'm not in the union, so not sure what the offer is yet. Should be interesting.
 
The recovery is muted because the jobs that are coming back are inferior to the ones they replaced.

Essentially, the "job creators" have collectively eliminated good paying white collar jobs and replaced them with minimum wage, dead end McJobs.

Another way to look at it: In the 50's, most of the economic gains generated by the economy were distributed to 90% of the workforce. Currently, most of the economic gains are distributed to less than 10%.

A rising tide no longer lifts all ships.
 
Most articles I've read expect round 2 to be worse than round 1. I expect it by the middle of next year. Each new downturn will only make the population more poor. A bad Winter(predicted by several different groups) will cause natural gas prices to skyrocket. The full effects of Obamacare will be felt in the coming years. The only good news is lower gas prices, and that is not likely to last very long. The UK is in bad shape, and France and Japan are doing even worse. The key is to find a cheap oil replacement and cheap energy sources very soon. That would temporarily alleviate some of your problems. Otherwise you're headed for trouble. Most people don't realize how bad things truly are and could be.