Well, not wishing to speak for Frankie, but to my knowledge...

Well, not wishing to speak for Frankie, but to my knowledge overall the Euro zone (15 countries) is now officially in a recession.

Official EU statistics published in November stated that the Euro zone shrank by 0.2 per cent in both the third and second quarters compared to the quarter before.

Some of the countries already in recession are Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Estonia and Latvia (not quite 50%), while France is only narrowly holding onto growth (0.1% in the 3rd qtr). I read some articles on Spain and it sounds pretty bad there, while the official govt. economic forecasts appear to be continually underestimating the problem (huge differences in forecast vs. actual unemployment for example).

Other Eastern Euro countries (e.g. Poland) were previously growing quite fast, but are now having the breaks applied - still seems to be a way to go before/if they fall into a recession.

Outside the Euro zone Britain and Hungary look like they will slip into recession in the next quarter (Britain looks particulary stuffed).

Job losses overall don't seem to be that severe as yet. The US seems to be far more aggressive in cutting staff (as you would expect given its stronger capitalist leanings).

Interesting to see how it pans out.

Cheers
SBC