Just scanning through some of the headlines…

The actual fall in UK House Prices in 2008 was 15.9% -http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7812108.stm

The first of the Q4 2008 sales figures are in - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7812954.stm

- from Debenhams - who adopted tactics of lots of big special offer days to get the pre xmas crowds in - their numbers down 3.3%

- from Next - who were much less proactive about attracting shoppers - their number’s down 7% for 6 months

The quote in this article says “challenging year” - and that’s talking about 09 not 08!

Toyota is shutting down all its Japanese factories for 11 days - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7813022.stm - simply because supply is outstripping (swamping?) demand.

The revenge of the French?… after years of having Brits using Ryanaid to invade rural France and snap up properties, there’s a story on the news this morning that the reverse might now be happening, especially with the double boost of UK price drops and the low value of Sterling - sorry but I can’t find a link for this at present - but I’ll keep my eyes open…

And finally… on a more personal note, a friend of mine got called to a company meeting yesterday - the news was about “re-structuring” and he is now “at risk of redundancy” - another load of IT jobs bite the dust…