UK - Boast of end to boom and bust looks busted

When he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown liked to boast that the UK economy was no longer subject to 'boom and bust'. With the last recession - which ended in 1992 - a distant memory, he probably felt safe in making such a claim. However, in the second quarter of this year, after 63 consecutive quarters of expansion, economic growth came to a standstill. Economists define a recession as two consecutive quarters in which the economy shrinks, and that is the prospect now facing the UK. Many of the pressures on the UK economy are global in nature. Higher commodity prices, for ...