Britain?s sinking economy

From The Economist print edition It is going to get nasty; exactly how bad depends on the Bank of England and, especially, Gordon Brown THE portents are increasingly gloomy. More and more signs are pointing to a punishing slowdown—with a recession looking likelier by the day. After 16 years in which Britain’s GDP has grown without halt, a downturn will come as a painful shock. Yet what may matter more is how Gordon Brown’s enfeebled government responds to the bad times ahead. A stream of unwelcome news has reinforced fears that the British economy, still the fifth-largest in the world in 2007, is set to shrink. Those concerns were crystallised on July 2nd when two large firms reported serious setbacks. Taylor Wimpey, the country’s biggest homebuilder, revealed that it had been unable to raise the extra finance it needs to... [read full story]