If Aus economy is driven mainly by minerals, then when foreign countries such as those in Asia start to re-energise one of the first things that they will start is construction. With this and manufacturing, then there should be a demand for minerals again (But maybe not at the same levels as a year ago).

On this basis, if Aus has been slow to enter the global slump, it might be one of the first to pull out as well.

Then again, "shares can go up as well as go down and no reliance on this information should be infered, implied or taken by those either living or dead in whatever capacity" - so who knows!

(Now goes of to start dribbling in the corner again whilst mumbling incoherent thoughts!)

TD

Basic economics, The whole world buys stuff, China makes all the stuff, they make the stuff from the what Australia digs out the ground. Even in the deepest of recessions people will always need stuff, only a bit less, but the need will be there all the same. In a year or so the US will start to pull out of the downturn, they will start buying lots of stuff again, so china will make more and Australia will have to dig more.
Britain doesn't make much stuff and is mainly a financed based economy run from the city of London. London is *****ed and Britain will be in a state for a long time to come.

Your US rebound obviously doesn't include Wall St then....and I would think the two are very intertwined. If Wall St pulls out of the downturn, so will London.

These are all just theories of course, but here's another scenario: There are a lot of very wealthy financiers holding on to their vast fortunes waiting to spend them. When they do it may well be in London. Some well publicised cases have ended up on the front pages, but there are many more who operate in the shadows. The little people like us lose our jobs, because the rich stop spreading the money around. In other words the trickle down stops trickling. The economy will start to turn around when those who have the money start spending it. That could be in London. Once money starts to move in London the vast service sector will revive.

True but first in, first out and the US has been on the downturn a lot longer than the UK. Sentiment is also very important and the Yanks have far more faith in Obama than the Brits in Brown.

Ha ha, the Brits have more faith in Obama than Brown too.

DeeDee01:You pointed out England was a "hole"?I take it you've been to Oz then and lived there for a while?Where I live in England is absolutely stunning,hardly a "hole"!(And yes I have lived in both countries for many years so know the difference)

Great replies, lots of food for thought for me and the OH....

Would we be in a better position if we were already citizens of oz and had ozzie work experience on our cv's / aussie contacts etc I wonder??

Some friends of ours are going back later this year, they are what I've heard is called pingpongs, and are citizens. They had a real shock coming back as they had rose tinted glasses on about a lot of things in the uk (well so my friend tells me anyhow) and as they think the uk is a" real dump" and feel they have a better quality of life / opportunities for their kids in oz they will head back. My friend is an accountant so she thinks she'll be ok.

Be interesting to see if your friends had their rose tinted glasses on when they decided to return to Oz. Why not wait till they get there and see how it goes for them? They may end up back here again!

Roobush:Your friends think the UK is a dump?What?The whole country or just where they came from?As I replied to someone else,I think it depends where you live in the UK.Yes,the last place I lived in SA was very nice,but when me and my first OH got married the only place we could afford to buy back then was a council house on a hideous huge and I mean huge council estate.Very depressing,seedy characters walking the streets (yes this was in Oz believe it or not)drug dealers patrolling the neighbourhood,kids running riot and that was 20 years ago!!!!I still cringe when I remember that place,ugh!!!!

The misses and I are still planning on going in May. Our 175 PR visa isn't approved yet but we are planning on travelling round for 3+ months to see some of Oz, and explore the areas we might want to live.

We sold our house in April last year (had to drop the price a bit) and have been in rented since July 08. We were originally going to wait for the visa to be granted but since selling the house the company I work for has gone down hill to the point where I am on borrowed time. My boss knows I'm going Oz at some point as he had to give me a reference, and our team is facing redundancies any day now so I know I'll be out of work. Also the wifes job is not safe either.

Weighing up this up, if we stay in the UK, we'll most likely be out of work in the next month or two anyway, no other ties so will still go to Oz. If we are out of work in the UK, we might as well make a start on our new life in Oz.

Life's too short to sit around and wait.

In reply to one of the posters on this thread, my friend lives in Dunstable. I haven't been there but I've visited Luton so it must be very similar. She says she doesn't have rose tinted glasses on about oz, just that coming back has made her appreciate so much more what she had out there. Because I've not lived there before I can't understand what she means fully but I guess she's now had a chance to live in both places and prefers Australia to England.

I feel a bit stuck at the moment, in a bit of a panic generally about the credit crunch and our future. Think I need to stop watching the news, it's sooooooo depressing and grim!