Doom and Gloom

Yet another day, yet another story about a bank that has run into trouble. The Bradford and Bingley is the latest one to disclose its woes in the face of an economic slowdown.

Northern Rock continues to flounder, despite the millions poured into it by the government.

At the same time, two other banks - Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland - have been accused of price fixing as they try to cling onto business and beat the competition.

All the UK banks should be feeling a little red faced at the moment because of their help in fuelling the crazy and unsustainable consumer spend that has been happening over the past few years, lending money here, there and everywhere to anyone who could get their hands on it. Conveniently forgetting to outline how important it was that the money was actually paid back with interest. And also reminding people of the consequences of not paying the money back.

Now, more people than ever face losing their homes as they fail to keep up with mortgages payments and and spiralling debt. To top it off, fuel, food and the cost of living keeps going up, but wages are staying the same.

This in turn has an effect on businesses - both small and large. Not only are the staff personally tightening their belts, but so are their customers. Rather than invest in that new infrastructure - they will buy a cheaper add-on that will keep it going just that little bit longer.

For resellers than can batten down the hatches and survive this latest storm, there is the promise of rich rewards to come. Slowdown, and even recessions, do not last forever - and considering the pace of technology development has not slowed down either, there are going to be a lot of firms that will need to catch up when the clouds of gloom have finally lifted.