[DemolitionRed]

Consumerism has changed over the last decade, particularly in the past five years. People are spending less on the high street and well known supermarkets and more on Amazon, eating out, leisure activities and shops like Lidl and Aldi. High street shops and supermarkets have been struggling with their profit margins for the last few years and its now reaching a crisis point.

That said, GDP is being dragged down by a lack of consumer spending. A devalued exchange rate and real wages falling.

Many of us may not of noticed the real squeese on spending power. We may not of noticed the sudden lack of shop assistants in M&S and that most shops no longer afford security or have an assistant on the changing room door.

When salaries fail to keep up with inflation people will borrow (at least whilst borrowing is still cheap). This at least cushions the impact for individuals and circulates money back into the economy but its not enough to sustain productivity performance and growth.

The last crash was caused mainly by subprime mortgages. Thousands lost their homes but the banks were bailed out and then it was straight back to business, only this time they called it "impaired credit” or “credit repair” and its much bigger and more problematic than the last time.

We have been heading towards a crash for the last 18 months and like I've said before, its not 'will it happen', its 'when' will it happen.