Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Brown shoots of the economy

Brown shoots rather than green ones.

Two observations make me think that the economy is turning down.

There seems to be a fairly sudden increase in what we might call semi-professional crime of a kind we had almost forgotten hearing about on local news. For example two supermarket robberies (tobacco & cigarettes) & systematic theft of trade waste bins & scrap metal. A step change from the crimes against the person, drug offences or drunk & disorderly behaviour we had grown more used to hearing about.

And a marked drop in the volume of traffic on the roads, especially the big hgvs.

Mind you, I rely on the A6 south of Manchester for my observations on this. Roadworks have been causing real headaches, so perhaps the professional drivers in particular are just choosing alternative routes. Let us hope so.