January 2009 – Page 13 – Infinite Unknown

U.S. Debt Expected To Soar By $2 Trillion This Year

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

$2 Trillion Increase May Test Federal Ability to Borrow

With President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats considering a massive spending package aimed at pulling the nation out of recession, the national debt is projected to jump by as much as $2 trillion this year, an unprecedented increase that could test the world’s appetite for financing U.S. government spending.

For now, investors are frantically stuffing money into the relative safety of the U.S. Treasury, which has come to serve as the world’s mattress in troubled times. Interest rates on Treasury bills have plummeted to historic lows, with some short-term investors literally giving the government money for free.

But about 40 percent of the debt held by private investors will mature in a year or less, according to Treasury officials. When those loans come due, the Treasury will have to borrow more money to repay them, even as it launches perhaps the most aggressive expansion of U.S. debt in modern history.

With the government planning to roll over its short-term loans into more stable, long-term securities, experts say investors are likely to demand a greater return on their money, saddling taxpayers with huge new interest payments for years to come. Some analysts also worry that foreign investors, the largest U.S. creditors, may prove unable to absorb the skyrocketing debt, undermining confidence in the United States as the bedrock of the global financial system.

While the current market for Treasurys is booming, it’s unclear whether demand for debt can be sustained, said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, which analyzes Treasury financing trends.

“There’s a time bomb in there somewhere,” Crandall said, “but we don’t know exactly where on the calendar it’s planted.” (….,but it will go off!)

US Governors seek $1 Trillion Bailout

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

New York Governor David Paterson speaks at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, in this file photo from August 26, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Segar

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country’s 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin — all Democrats — said the initiative for the two-year aid package was backed by other governors and follows a meeting in December where governors called on President-elect Barack Obama to help them maintain services in the face of slumping revenues.

Gov. David Paterson of New York said 43 states now have budget deficits totaling some $100 billion as tax revenues plunge.

“It’s clear that the federal government needs to step in and jump-start the economy,” said Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. (In the case of the US that is like injecting cortisone into a terminal cancer patient. ‘Ignorance will prevail.’)

The latest package calls for $350 billion to create jobs by building or repairing roads, bridges and other public works; $250 billion to maintain education; and another $250 billion in “counter-cyclical” spending such as extending unemployment benefits and food stamps, which are typically a responsibility of the states.

China honey might be contaminated with dangerous, extremely toxic, banned antibiotic

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

Honey is the latest Chinese food import to raise safety worries in the United States, reports the San Francisco Gate. According to the report, the United States has imported the majority of its honey from China for years, despite concerns that it might be contaminated with a dangerous antibiotic.

Israeli Troops Launch Ground Invasion

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

“I am greatly surprised by, and I reject, the words of the Israeli foreign minister, who asks: ‘Is there a humanitarian crisis? There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,'” he said. “This is an astonishing thing, that after more than 450 victims and more than 2,000 injured… then it is said there is no humanitarian crisis.

Israeli troops enter Gaza. Screengrab courtesy of Sky News

Israeli tanks and troops have launched a ground invasion to reoccupy parts of the northern Gaza strip as the military escalated its assault on the Palestinian enclave in an attempt to curb Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.

With Israel’s chief military spokesman warning that the attack would take “many long days”, the Israeli Cabinet also authorised the call of thousands more reservists. As Israeli tanks and infantry crossed into northern Gaza reports began to emerge of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops. The invasion comes after Hamas warned Israeli forces entering Gaza faced a “black destiny” and vowed that they would be defeated.

Palestinian witnesses said a small column of military vehicles moved across the border firing tracer bullets after dark. The Israeli army said the assault is intended to take control of territory in the north of the Gaza strip from where Hamas fires its rockets.

Israel okays call-up of tens of thousands of IDF reservists

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

Israel’s government has approved the call-up of tens of thousands of reservist soldiers, it was annnounced Saturday, almost simultaneously with the launch of a Gaza ground incursion aimed at halting rocket fire on Israel’s southern communities.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office said in a statement that, in accordance with a secret cabinet discussion Friday, the government ordered the armed forces “to draft the necessary reservists, on a scale of tens of thousands of troops.”

The Gaza ground operation launched Saturday had actually been approved last week, but Olmert promised his ministers that when the time came to begin the offensive, it would first be brought for fresh approval by the security cabinet. On Thursday night, Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak held a meeting that lasted until 4 A.M., during which it was decided that that time had come.

Chicago to take over at the White House

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

Bush brought Texas to Washington, now Obama brings the Windy City

Barack Obama is back in Chicago after a 12-day holiday in Hawaii. But not for long. On Monday he begins his new life in Washington, temporarily housed in the Hay-Adams hotel until the White House becomes available on 20 January.

Even so, Chicago will never be too far away. Just as George Bush brought Texas to Washington and Bill Clinton brought Arkansas, so Obama too brings a blast of his home city.

The inner circle in the White House will be overwhelmingly Chicagoan. His two chief advisers, David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, are both long-time associates from the city, and his White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is another.

But more than that, Obama brings with him the baggage of Chicago’s political culture – the roughest in the US. The small-scale bribes that older Chicagoans remember from visits to City Hall are a thing of the past but the sharp suits, naked ambition and political trading are much the same. So too is the large-scale corruption that has seen 50 elected officials from Illinois jailed over the past 30 years.

Protests against Gaza attack sweep across the world

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

The streets in Jakarta were filled with protesters today (Adek Berry/AFP/Getty)

From Jakarta to London, a wave of protest erupted across the world today against Israel’s assault on Gaza.

More than 10,000 marched through the Indonesian capital and Israeli flags were burnt and trampled upon in Asia as the Palestinian death toll in the offensive rose above 430, including three young brothers killed this morning.

Thirty new Israeli raids struck the Gaza Strip today as thousands of Hamas supporters attended the funeral of Nizar Rayan, the most senior Hamas victim of the offensive. He was killed with his four wives and 11 of his children in another Israeli raid yesterday.

Hamas leaders responded by calling for a “Day of Wrath” to avenge the deaths as the party warned that it may resume suicide attacks against Israel for the first time since January 2005.

Bush clears way for Israeli ground operation, updates Obama (Day 8 of Gaza campaign)

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

Final preparations by Israeli troops

DEBKAfile‘s Washington source report that in a telephone conversation with prime minister Ehud Olmert, US president George W. Bush okayed Israeli air, sea and ground operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He promised the US would veto a resolution condemning Israel at the UN Security Council meeting next Monday. Early Saturday morning, Jan. 3, Day 8 of Israel’s Gaza operation, US and British media described the Israeli invasion as hours away.

In his weekly radio address – brought forward by a day, the US president spoke with exceptional firmness: “Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable,” he said. “This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas – a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel’s destruction.”

He noted that “Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a coup and routinely violated an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire…” and went on to define the exit point for Israel’s military operation:

“Promises from Hamas will not suffice,” he said. There must be “monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end.”

Singapore GDP Posts Biggest Fall on Record

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

SINGAPORE — Singapore plunged deeper into recession in the fourth quarter as gross domestic product marked its biggest quarterly decline on record, said the government, which lowered its projection for 2009.

The darker outlook for the small, trade-dependent economy — considered to be a bellwether for the rest of the region — likely means the government will step up spending to offset a slowdown in manufacturing and a rapid cooling in the construction and services sectors. It may also pressure the central bank to ease monetary policy to support growth.

Singapore’s economy contracted at a seasonally adjusted, annualized pace of 12.5% in the quarter, accelerating from a 5.4% decline in the third quarter, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s estimate. It was the biggest contraction since the government began publishing seasonally adjusted data in 1976.

“The global economic crisis has worsened since November, with sharp declines in global demand, trade and investments,” the ministry said.

The government cut its forecast for 2009, projecting a range of between a contraction of 2% and growth of 1%, against its estimate in November of a range of a contraction of 1% and growth of 2%.

Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng is more pessimistic. He forecasts GDP will contract 2.8% this year. That would make the current downturn worse than the slump in 1998, when the economy shrank 1.4% as it was buffeted by the Asian financial crisis, and worse than the 2001 recession following the collapse of U.S. technology stocks, when GDP shrank 2.4%. “If we are correct, 2009 will mark the most severe recession in Singapore’s history,” he said.

SEC Examines More Ponzi Schemes After Madoff

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. regulators working to untangle Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme are probing other money managers suspected of using similar tactics, two people with knowledge of the inquiries said.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing at least one case in which investors may have been cheated out of as much as $1 billion, according to a person, who declined to name the manager and asked not to be identified because the probe isn’t public.

Flawed accounting method hides true scale of pension fund losses

January 3, 2009 by Infinite

Many of Britain’s biggest companies are preparing year-end accounts that show their pension schemes moved into surplus last year despite the collapse in world markets, which wiped hundreds of billions from their assets.

The latest figures from the pensions advisers Aon Consulting show that a steep decline in the FTSE 100 over last year and a sharp drop in commercial property values has sent most final-salary schemes into crisis and pushed fund deficits to new lows. According to government figures, company pension fund deficits rose in the 12 months to November from £58bn to £155bn.

Aon Consulting warned that the figures underestimated the problem and pension funds had suffered a £226bn loss on their investments in the year to October.

However, accounting rules – which critics argue distort company pension scheme fund values – will show a rise in assets. For the top 200 companies in Britain, that will mean a £13bn surplus at the end of 2008. Aon says the top 100 firms have seen a £5bn improvement over the last year, based on current accounting rules.

Forces mass for Israeli ground invasion of Gaza

January 2, 2009 by Infinite

New front … thousands of Israeli troops have massed in preparation for a ground assault on Gaza.

ISRAEL has thousands of troops massed for a ground offensive on Gaza that would aim to deal a hammer blow to Hamas and re-establish Israel’s military credentials with its other foes, experts say.

The number of troops and tanks along the 60km border is a military secret but Israeli leaders say the force is ready and local media say the assault is imminent.

Israel launched air strikes and a naval bombardment one week ago in response to weeks of militant rocket fire from Hamas-run Gaza.

Israeli warplanes today hit Gaza targets including a mosque and a house where three young brothers were killed.

A missile from one of 30 new Israeli raids hit a house and killed the boys, aged from seven to 10, emergency services said.

At least 430 Palestinians have been killed – including top Hamas leader Nizar Rayan – and 2250 people wounded in the raids, according to Gaza officials. About 300 militant rockets have killed four people and wounded dozens in Israel.

Economists warn of doom and gloom

January 2, 2009 by Infinite

The recession will be considerably longer and deeper than the Treasury has forecast, according to a majority of economists polled by the Financial Times.

Their views contrast with the Treasury and the Bank of England’s relative optimism in believing the economy will start to grow reasonably strongly in the second half of the year. Only a small minority of economists are confident that the green shoots of recovery will be visible by the end of this year.

Doom-mongerers include Michael Saunders of Citi, who says the UK is “in one of the worst recessions …. in the last 50 years”. He is joined by Simon Hayes of Barclays Capital, who says: “It will probably be the closest experience to the Great Depression since the Great Depression.”

Microsoft poised to cut up to 15,000 jobs

January 2, 2009 by Infinite

The first large-scale job losses in Microsoft’s 32-year history could lead to as many as 15,000 redundancies from a workforce of 91,000 worldwide

Microsoft is preparing to announce the first widescale layoffs in its 32-year history, with up to 15,000 jobs at risk, according to some predictions.

Speculation about job cuts was triggered by a report from Fudzilla, the technology blog site, which said that employees had been told that the software group was “readying major layoffs to its worldwide operations” on January 15.

That prompted a flurry of internet commentary, with estimates of planned redundancies varying from10 to 17 per cent of the company’s 91,000 employees worldwide. MSN, the online division, is expected to be heavily affected.

U.S. Economy: Manufacturing Shrinks as Orders Hit 60-Year Low

January 2, 2009 by Infinite

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) — The decline in U.S. manufacturing deepened in December as demand for such products as cars, appliances and furniture reached the lowest level since at least 1948, signaling further cutbacks in factory jobs and production this year.

The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 32.4, below economists’ forecasts and the lowest level since 1980, from 36.2 the prior month. Readings less than 50 signal contraction. The group’s new-orders measure reached the lowest level on record and prices slid the most since 1949.

Warren Buffett Has ‘Nowhere to Hide’ Amid Berkshire’s Plunge

January 2, 2009 by Infinite

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, pauses during an interview in New York on June 25, 2008. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) — Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slumped 32 percent last year, the worst performance in more than three decades, as the U.S. recession forced down the value of the firm’s equity holdings and derivative bets.

Most of the stock decline happened in the last three months as Berkshire posted a fourth straight profit drop amid sagging insurance results. The company still beat the 38 percent tumble of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the 14th year in 20 that Buffett outperformed the benchmark. Just six of 1,591 U.S. stock mutual funds with at least $250 million in assets made money for investors last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Gulf Cooperation Council to Create New Currency

January 4, 2009January 2, 2009 by Infinite

The Gulf Arab nations are now all fighting for their survival, because their future economic calculations and decisions are all based on much higher oil prices.

Don’t miss:
– Lindsey Williams: The Dollar And The US Will Collapse; Saudi Arabia And Dubai Will Fall; US Will Be Third World Country; The Greatest Depression Is Coming

– Peter Schiff: US Dollar is on the verge of collapse; This is hyperinflation; This is Zimbabwe (12/17/2008)

– Gerald Celente: The Coming Revolt

The breaking of their dollar pegs by the Gulf Arab nations is clearly dollar negative. Any inclusion of gold either as a part of the monetary basket, or in the reserves of the new GCC Central Bank will create additional demand for the precious metal.

Related article: Will the New GCC Single Currency Include Gold?

Gulf Cooperation Council leaders yesterday concluded their 29th annual summit meeting in Muscat, Oman with a final approval for the creation of a single currency for the six-nation economic bloc, still targeted for 2010.

Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the GCC and boasts substantial gold reserves. But whether gold will be included in the currency basket has not yet been decided.

Golden opportunity

GCC assistant secretary-general Mohammad Al Mazroui told Gulf News: ‘We first have to decide on the location of the Central Bank, then the Central Bank and Monetary Council will have to decide on the gold reserves for the Central Bank’.

The creation of the GCC single currency – likely to be known as the Khaleeji which means Gulf in Arabic – is a major gold event for two reasons.

First, the breaking of their dollar pegs by the Gulf Arab nations is clearly dollar negative. Secondly, any inclusion of gold either as a part of the monetary basket, or in the reserves of the new GCC Central Bank will create additional demand for the precious metal.

Gulf stocks plummet in turbulent year; Dubai shedding almost three quarters of its value

January 3, 2009January 2, 2009 by Infinite

KUWAIT CITY: Stock markets in the Gulf states yesterday ended 2008 sharply lower as the energy-dependent economies were battered by the global financial crisis while oil prices plummeted. Most of the seven markets witnessed their worst year ever with the bourse of the bustling Dubai shedding almost three quarters of its value and the Saudi market, the largest in the Arab world, slumping by more than half.

More than $515bn were wiped off of their market value as their capitalisation stood at just $600bn compared to $1.116 trillion at the end of 2007. “It was a year of contradictions as share prices rose sharply in the first half but nosedived in the second half similar to the oil price scenario,” Kuwaiti economist Hajjaj Bukhdur said.

“The impact of the global financial crisis on the Gulf economies was much deeper than initially thought. Gulf stocks slumped even more than bourses in the West where the crisis began,” Bukhdur said. The Saudi Tadawul All-Shares Index (TASI) dropped 56.5 percent to close the year at 4,802.99 points, down from 11,175.96 points at the end of 2007. It was pulled down by a sharp slide in the leading banks and petrochemicals sectors.

Kuwait Stock Exchange, the second largest in the Arab world, shed 38 percent to finish the year at 7,782.60 points, almost a four-year low. However, it was down 50.3 percent from its all-time high set in late June. In the United Arab Emirates, the Dubai Financial Market slid 72.4 percent to close at 1,636.29 points, near its four-year low.

Gerald Celente on The Alex Jones Show: The Coming Revolt

January 25, 2009January 1, 2009 by Infinite

If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.
– New York Post

When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente.
– CNN Headline News

There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about. – CNBC

Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.
– The Wall Street Journal

A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties.
– The Economist

Alex welcomes back to the show Gerald Celente, the world’s number one trends forecaster, who has predicted a severe depression and riots in the streets.

Part 1 of 7 (Part 1 is not uploaded on YouTube. All the others are there and a must-see.)

Part 2 of 7

December 18, 2008
Source: YouTube

Taleban kills 20 police in Helmand province

January 1, 2009 by Infinite

Taleban militants launched an assault on the home of a district governor in southern Afghanistan, killing 20 police in one of the deadliest insurgent raids in months.

Grim conditions force Chinese president to revisit site of Sichuan earthquake

January 1, 2009 by Infinite

Hu Jintao has made his first visit back to the earthquake zone since the disaster struck in May after it emerged that millions of people were still homeless.

Destroyed buildings in Beichuan last May Photo: AFP/GETTY

Only a handful of the five million people whose homes were destroyed by the strongest earthquake to hit China in half-a-century have managed to rebuild before the arrival of winter.

Piles of bricks and bags of cement line the road to Beichuan, near the epicentre of the quake, as peasants desperately try to erect structures that will shield them from the elements. The temperature in this mountainous region has already dipped to zero and will fall to as much as minus 20 degrees centigrade in the coming months.

As he surveyed the refugee camps, where the cold weather has triggered flu outbreaks, Mr Hu said: “The most important thing is to make sure all people are housed, have clothes and quilts to resist the cold, have enough food for the winter and coming spring and [that] medical services and epidemic prevention are in place.”

Hong Xiuqiong, 34, lives in a shack made of reclaimed wood and with a straw roof. “The government has stopped paying out the relief money and we have barely any food,” she said. “We only have a plastic sheet to wrap around the hut to try to make it waterproof.”

Mrs Hong, who lives with her baby, her husband and his family in the tiny hut, said she thought her 90-year-old father-in-law “may not make it”. She added: “I was tempted to commit suicide myself after the earthquake.”

Iran on full alert in wake of Israeli raids

January 1, 2009 by Infinite

Israeli tanks taking position on the northern border with the Gaza Strip.

Iran’s Air Force is on alert after the country’s president envisaged major regional developments in the wake of the Israeli raids on Gaza.

The chief Iranian Air Force Commander Brigadier General Hassan Shah-Safi said on Wednesday that the ongoing critical situation in the Middle East has prompted the Iranian military to take necessary measures to ensure readiness in the event of the country becoming the target of an offensive.

“Iran’s Air Force has of late carried out 120 successful sorties along with long-range flights of 2,000 kilometers, and has also conducted unprecedented aerial missions,” Brig. Gen. Shah-Safi said.

Treasury to continue bailing out firms, industries by looting taxpayers’

January 1, 2009January 1, 2009 by Infinite

It seems that the US government and the Federal Reserve are looting taxpayers’ until there is nothing left.

If you take into account what Peter Schiff and Lindsey Williams are telling us….

– Peter Schiff: US Dollar is on the verge of collapse; This is hyperinflation; This is Zimbabwe (12/17/2008):
“I am a 100% convinced that anybody who has their wealth in US Dollars will be just as broke as the people who had their money with Madoff.”

– Peter Schiff on CNBC: The government is pouring gasoline on a fire that it set (12/29/08):
“We are in the process of creating another Great Depression.”

– Lindsey Williams: The Dollar And The US Will Collapse; Saudi Arabia And Dubai Will Fall; US Will Be Third World Country; The Greatest Depression Is Coming

…with the odd timing that there is an ‘Army combat unit to deploy within the U.S.’ plus ‘Pentagon: 20,000 Troops to Bolster Domestic Security’ …

((Of course those troops need training: Northcom Combat Team Conducts “Humanitarian Support” Exercise in Maryland: “The Armed Forces Press Service has initiated a propaganda campaign designed to convince the American people that deploying the 3rd Infantry Division in the United States in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is a good thing.”))

…then it does not sound like a crazy conspiracy theory anymore that the government will deploy more and more soldiers within the U.S. in preparation for civil unrest in case US citizens realize that they are betrayed by the government and the Fed, who ‘are’ destroying the future of the US by creating massive debt and hyperinflation, which will ultimately lead to the total collapse of the US.

Soon the government and the Fed will have turned the U.S. into a ‘Third World’ country.

Source: Bloomberg

Treasury Opens Door to Aid for Broad Array of Firms, Industries

Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Treasury threw the door open to taxpayer financing for a widening array of companies and industries by drafting broad guidelines on aid to the auto industry.

The Treasury’s guidelines, published yesterday, would let officials provide funds to any company they deem important to making or financing cars. That leaves room for the government to provide money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program beyond loans already committed to General Motors Corp., GMAC LLC and Chrysler LLC.

“There are going to be other industries that are going to have just as good a case,” as the auto companies, former St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President William Poole said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We don’t know what those other industries are going to be. Where does this process stop?”

Shares of auto suppliers including American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. and Lear Corp. jumped yesterday after Treasury announced the guidelines. The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association has been lobbying for the use of federal funds as a backstop in case parts makers can’t collect money the auto manufacturers owe them.

Daniel Barenboim: The illusion of victory

January 1, 2009 by Infinite

If Hamas is destroyed, a more radical group will replace it. Israel’s security depends on wiser action

I have just three wishes for the coming year. The first is for the Israeli government to realise once and for all that the Middle East conflict cannot be solved by military means. The second is for Hamas to realise that its interests are not served by violence, and Israel is here to stay. And the third is for the world to acknowledge that this conflict is unlike any other in history. It is uniquely intricate and sensitive – a conflict between two peoples who are both deeply convinced of their right to live on the same very small piece of land. This is why neither diplomacy nor military action can resolve this conflict.

440 retailers to go bust in first four months of the year, analysts predict

January 1, 2009 by Infinite

Nearly 26 retailers will collapse every week in the first four months of the year, a leading retail analyst has predicted.

Morgan - 440 retailers to go bust in first four months of the year, analysts predict
Morgan, the High Street fashion chain, has collapsed into administration Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The forecast comes as Morgan, the French fashion chain, becomes the latest victim of the crisis on the high street, collapsing into administration. It joins a lengthening list of shop groups to have failed this week alone, including clothing store USC, Adams childrenswear group and Olan Mills the photography studio.

Experian, a data company which analyses the sector, predicts that a total of 440 retail businesses will go into administration in the first four months of 2009, equating to nearly 26 every week. This would be the worst period for shopkeepers since the depths of the winter of discontent thirty years ago.

Very few shops will escape completely unscathed, Experian predicts, with major chains – with branches on most high streets – as well as small, individual retailers all being hit by the severe consumer downturn.