Brown's bubble lets off wind 2

Further news of the impact of the "credit crunch" in the economic sectors most immediately affected. This is an important caveat, as there is no sign of estate agencies closing down on Epsom High Street or building wok slowing down in the more profitable sector of flats near the town centre.

Debtwire, an organisation that monitors the health of companies, said the   number of estate agency branches had fallen from about 13,000 at the start   of the year to about 12,000. The rate of closures is accelerating and   presently stands at 150 a week.

Sources in the field said that with each branch employing an average of four   people, the number of job losses was about 4,000.

There is some discussion of recovery in the media, the first time that a panda has looked for green shoots before the drought. Avoiding the adjustment is not likely to work: its depth and length are unknown. In geometrickal terms, this potential rescission has one side seen, the start, with lines projecting over time t, unknown. A new forecast has commenttaors coining the term "post credit crunch recovery" though PCCR syndrome could be derailed by oil prices. The vulnerability of the economy has left us open to the 1970s achilles heel, oil prices:

Hetal Mehta, of the Item Club, said: "If [the oil price] hits $200 per barrel, as one Opec minister recently predicted, then frankly all bets may well be off."

In those circumstances, she said, Britain could suffer a high street recession next year, with consumer spending shrinking by 0.1pc.

Such an increase would mean the overall economy would grow by a mere 0.9pc in 2009. The club said inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, would more than double to 5.9pc. The CPI is currently at 2.5pc - above the Bank of England's 2pc target.

Ms Mehta added: "With oil permanently at $200 the Governor of the Bank of England would be suffering from writers' cramp with the number of letters he would have to write to the Chancellor explaining why the UK economy had breached the target."

All bets were off when the credit crunch began.