I know it's not a consulting question but in the current economic climate I would welcome peoples view. Is unemployment insurance reccomended to cover my mortgage payments?What to look out for

What is your income?How much are your mortgage payments?What are your other outgoings?What does the rest of your wealth portfolio (savings, investments, etc.) look like (size, returns, liquidity, etc.)?What is your employment status (role, employer, tenure, state of business, etc.)?What is your family status?

Good grief, given that you can't work this out *, yes, I recommend strongly taking out insurance since you're clearly moments away from dismissal on the grounds of gross incompetence.Hint: you may need a pencil, some scrap paper and a calculator

1. Save your moneyIf you have only 10% equity, hand the keys back let the government bail you out as they would need to find you a rent.The bank that owns your house or the Government (You see what I mean) does not want your house, its worth jack plop unless you have a 30% LEQ.Now think about why you want too keep a negative asset and pay for the privelidge, or do you not watch the news, nobody wants bloody houses, the population is shrinking and we have too many houses. Go ask Santander/HBOS/B&B etc... they DONT want bricks :)

It would be nice if nobody really did want houses. Sadly however they're still sufficiently in demand to mean that I, as a well qualified MC of 7 years, still cannot afford even a crappy little 3 bed detached home.

"nobody wants bloody houses, the population is shrinking and we have too many houses"What country do you live in? In the UK the opposite is the case.

Really the opposite in the UK, wow id best try buy some mortgage backed securities from one of your Building Societies.Whats that nobody will touch B&B with a lepers pen1s?You should go away for a bit son, the adults are talking here !

Mortgage-backed securities are definitely not in demand.However, house prices despite falling remain at ridiculously high levels still.If houses are really so undesirable, there's a right mug here just waiting to buy a large 5 bed detached house in a nice commuter belt area for £200K. Come and take advantage!

Cynic.You can get a 4 bed detached brand new in a commuter belt for that price :).Essentially what will happen is as follows:1. Interest rate cut2. Value of £/$ is cut abroad3. Our goods are more affordable4. Wages go up5. People start buying houses6. Someone on £50k will be on £75k in two years7. House prices will stay static for 5 years8. Suddenly you can afford a house, again9. Rinse and repeat.Furthermore another question you should ask is as follows:The government operates on taxes, these taxes are the result of excess and house buying.We no longer have the tax income.Who can afford these suits?:)Thats the US version anyway ATM.

1. Interest rate cut Some days you just know your on form, or work for HMRC..... or em..... shhhh!!!!

Ok, so what about the pain over the five years? Its called a recession! Risk, the unknown.... The model is static! n'est pas!

I really f-ing hate inflation. I can't believe interest rates are falling at a time when inflation is way above target. Sure there is a lag effect, but I can't stand the way there seems to be a bias in favour of "saving the economy" and "helping homeowners" than keeping inflation low so that those of us who took out a small mortgage that we could afford are effectively losing out, whilst the sub-primers get away with murder by having their huge mortgage whittled down by 5% per year through inflation alone, whilst the rest of us get 2.5% payrises or something similarly crap.

4. Wages go up - Wage inflation is likely to be kept to a minimum in an economic downturn6. Someone on £50k will be on £75k in two years - Are you mad?!!?! This would go against all of what economic history tells us abotu what happens to wages in a downturn. The current stats coming out from the last few months would not support this at all. The debate around inflation is interesting. One could reasonably argue that there is a possibility of the UK experiencing 1-2 years of deflation over the next 5 years.

I agree with fb. Far too much chat about inflation from people who were alarmed by the swaths of daily mail articles a number of months back. Yes we did have a short spell of above target inflation (although it certainly didn't reach 5% Cynic) - however the reality, and our saving grace, is that we are now in what is closer to a deflationary environment. Commodities, oil, food stuffs... pick up a newspaper. All fundamentals suggest this will be the trend for the short to mid.This is not stagflation, we can drop I% and hopefully bounce back.

From the ONS website: Consumer Prices Index (CPI) annual inflation – the Government's target measure – was 5.2 per cent in September, up from 4.7 per cent in August.Graph can be seen at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?ID=19I don't think I'd quite call it stagflation yet either, but it's definitely a shift of the phillips curve rather than a move along it.We do not have deflation at the moment. What we have is a reduced rate of the rate of increase. Look at the graph - inflation has been positive for as far as it goes back.

Someone in work just said the same thing re CPI measure while we were discussing interest rate speculation – your quite right it did hit 5.2% last quarter by CPI measure so apologies. I agree we aren’t in true deflation, by closer to I suggest there is going to be a pretty vicious drop in inflation at the next announcement - we’re feeling it already as I’m sure you’re aware. Ultimately the point I was making was that I disagree with your predictions of continuing above target (5% or otherwise) inflation (to the advantage of high leveraged home owners). Time will tell though, we await the next figures with baited breath.

Interest rates today came down by a whopping 1.5% to 3% - the lowest level since 1955As you can see, I work for my money, my 'advised' clients are now crafting an effigy out of diamonds in my likeness.Car is really nice, and what with my coming mortgage rate cut, I can well afford it.Taxman - there is only one!