If you think the U.S. is alone in its Recession and scary housing market, you’re wrong! Apparently Great Britain is having a heckuva time, as is Australia and Southeast Asia. From MarketWatch:

The data come amid a steady of stream of negative news about the British housing sector. Other surveys have also shown a rapid decline in house prices over recent months, while mortgage approvals slumped to an all-time low in May.

Lenders have boosted mortgage rates and tightened lending standards in the wake of the credit crunch.
“With house-purchase transactions so far below their long-term trend, it seems unlikely that there will be any rapid turnaround in housing market fortunes in the coming month,” said Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s chief economist.

“We’re in a nasty environment,” said Tim Bond, Barclay’s chief equity strategist. “There is an inflation shock underway. This is going to be very negative for financial assets. We are going into tortoise mood and are retreating into our shell. Investors will do well if they can preserve their wealth.”

… Mr Bond said the emerging world is now on the cusp of a serious crisis. “Inflation is out of control in Asia. Vietnam has already blown up. The policy response is to shoot the messenger, like the developed central banks in the late 1960s and 1970s,” he said.

“They will have to slam on the brakes. There is going to be a deep global recession over the next three years as policy-makers try to get inflation back in the box.”