Global Financial Crisis Mark II

Are we headed for Global Financial Crisis Mark II? I don't know if you have a local Clive Peeters store in your area, they are just up the road from me in a huge complex with Harvey Norman and lots of other retailers. We've bought things there over the years and the shop is always full. So how come they went broke owing $140 million? Some financial experts are saying that Clive Peeters is just the first of many to go to the wall with fears of a GFC Mark II.

There was a rush on their stores last week and you can't blame people for panicking. When customers got wind of the story, people who had paid large deposits on TV's, fridges and washing machines were told they couldn't get their goods all hell broke loose. Thankfully, a spokesman for the store has since promised that everyone will in fact receive their items afterall, what a relief.

It's hard going in retail at the moment. Gary black, executive director of the National Retail Association said the current sentiment within the retail sector was grim. "It's not uncommon for retailers to tell me that their sales have slumped by as much as 25 per cent and those losses are devastating."

Now they are saying that Kevin Rudd's $900 Christmas present for everyone in December 2009 didn't help them. It is now characterised by retailers as an aberration, a "blip in the radar" that shouldn't have happened. They are ignoring 2009's figures and are looking back to 2008 and finding that the current climate is even worse.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics have shown spending on household goods, clothing and footwear and on department store products is now lower than it was 12 months ago in the midst of the GFC. Because the retailing sector relies on a casual and part-time workforce, we probably won't hear about the job losses that are going on but many employees are not being replaced.

That's all we need, another GFC. All these interest rate rises are having a dramatic effect on family spending. There's a lot of depressing world news around at the moment and this is just another bad news story that we could well do without.