With consumer confidence at an all time low in the UK, shoppers are cutting back on their spending.

The Arcadia Group home of some of the high streets most recognizable labels has announced that sales have fallen for the last seven weeks.

The company has revealed today that operating profit last year declined 6.1 percent as the stores are facing what Sir Philip Green has described as a “more challenging time”.

Sales at Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge stores had an “excellent year” although the Green has aid that “we’re all going to have to work a bit harder” and that the focus will be squarely on customer service as it is important for everybody to know their own business.

The billionaire has made moves with the aim to buy out debt’s following talks with Baugur Group Hf, the Icelandic owner of UK flagship stores Hamleys and Karen Millen.

It is estimated that Green will pay up to 2 million pounds for Baugur’s debt, although it is too early to comment on the results of the early discussions.

It is not all doom and gloom for the retail industry during the current economic slowdown and it is the hardiness of companies such as Arcadia who had operating profit of 275.3 million pounds that mean that the UK could shake off this economic downturn far quicker than first anticipated.

Arcadia’s close rivals Marks & Spencer Group Plc who are the UK’s largest clothing retailer had also had store revenue fall by 6.1 percent during the period where consumer sentiment is near record lows, which proves just how tough the current market climate is

The presidents of the US, France and the European Commission have unveiled plans for a series of summits to discuss the global financial crisis.

The call for action has been loud and strong and finally the at Camp David Sarkozy of France, Jose Manuel Barroso of the European Commission George W Bush agreed that it was “essential that we work together”.

The first of these summits will be held in the US in November in a bid to save the world’s financial system for meltdown.

At his speech at Camp David, President Bush went on to invite all world leaders to the global summit in order to discuss the best way to respond to the current economic slowdown.

His main argument is that the global financial system needs a re-think in order to safeguard the foundations of capitalism and the free market.

President Sarkozy however saw the worldwide crisis in a more positive light as he described it as a “great opportunity” to build the capitalism of the future, leaving a more sustainable footprint.

Specific focus will be placed on regulation as Mr Sarkozy said the hedge funds, tax havens and financial institutions should be supervised so that they are not the cause of future destabilization.

In order to survive the credit crunch phone markers have had to focus on making products cheaper with a full package in order to attract sales. It is a policy that has worked wonders for the iPod maker Apple Inc.

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson however have not been so lucky as demand for high end mobile phones have fallen, coupled with currency rates pre tax profits have fallen drastically.

The company actually made a profit of 12 million euros in the three months to 30 September however with the inclusion of restructuring costs, it made a 23m euro loss.

The firm has given two profit warnings already this year and their shares downgraded, although it does not look as if the market will let up any time soon.

The firm has placed their lackluster performance squarely on the market as the average selling price of a phone slipped form 116 euros to 109 euros, with the number of handsets being sold in the last quarter down by 3.4 million.

Nokia have also been hit as of late who are 30 percent down from last year and have lost their status as the market leader in this ultra competitive price driven market.

The Chancellor is Alistair Darling planning an ‘old skool’ pump priming technique as used in the great depression with a new building programme that will create thousands of jobs even though unemployment could hit up to 2million by the end of the year.

The multibillion government investment plan is seen as the easiest and quickest way to get Britain out of this economic downturn, as the crisis hit economy should respond the cash injection.

It is believed that the Chancellor will use the money from future budgets as spending guidelines are literally thrown out of the window by wielding tax payers money in the face of our current economic crisis.

The extra money will be put forward as essential public spending which will be used for new schools, hospitals and housing which should help the UK’s beleaguered construction industry.

The details of the plan will be revealed in his Pre-Budget Report, however many analysts have been critical.

The plan is expected to reveal an increase in borrowing projections and a variety of different measure to deal with spiralling UK debt.

Darling has stood firm reiterating that “this is a time when you have to support the economy,” with such interventionist policies proven to work as was argued by the early 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes.

Premier Foods saw its shares fall by 54 percent in the last few days and it is clear that the food giant is clearly struggling in the face of the current financial crisis, which means that some of Britain’s most recognizable kitchen brands could also be lost.

The likes of Branston pickles and Hovis bread, Bird’s custard and Oxo gravy could all be jeopardy as the economic slowdown has meant that many hard hit shoppers are now turning away from their favourite brands in a bid to reduce the cost of the ever increasing weakly shop.

With shopper turning to supermarket own-label goods Premier foods has really found it difficult to pay back bank loans, meaning that the company was forced to release a statement to the stock exchange.

Within the announcement the Mr Kipling maker said that the company was able to meet its financial commitments through to their year end in December, although they are not planning to raise further funds through a rights issue.

Premier foods have indicated that their finances are not actually in immediate danger however they do face difficulty in reducing the £1.8 million that they owe.

There is finally a reprieve for UK motorists as the price of oil falling to just over $66 dollars per barrel which will also go a long way in helping haulage companies to recover.

Supermarket forecourts have started a price war with Tesco leading the way as the first of the big four to go down the psychological barrier of under a pound a litre.

Tesco announced that the vast majority of their 430 petrol stations had revisted their prices to 99.9pence a litre.

Since then Sainsbury’s have also confirmed that it had brought the price down to 99.9p a litre and that locally prices have fallen by around 8 pence a litre.

Analysts do predict that it takes around 4 weeks for the fall of the price of a barrel of oil to filter into consumers pockets.

The price of fuel has played an important role in inflation as well as hurting the price of exports.Similarly the struggling airline industry has had to continually increase fuel surcharges in order to keep in business, so the fall in the price of crude oil has come at just the right time.

LTE International the low cost Spanish airline is now the latest airline to be hit by the financial downturn as they had to suspend flights and all operations.

The company released the following statement: “due to the financial situation of the company … it (is) difficult to meet the operational expenses,” the company said. “After 20 years operating with maximum dedication to our clients it just was not possible to avoid this situation given world events.”

Following the fact that BA recently announced up their plan to make senior managers redundant, Alitalia struggling with XL and Zoom airlines already blown out of the skies it is a dangerous time for the aviation industry.

LTE is suffering from two angles as the fluctuations fuel costs are having detrimental affects on their budget as well as reduced consumer confidence due to the impeding recession.

LTE is actually one of four Spanish carriers who have ceased operations in the last few weeks as has the only UK business service to Hong Kong, Oasis.

With British Airways’ profits down by 90 per cent in just the last three months to August it is seemingly difficult for even the major airlines and with low cost airlines having no margin to play with it is difficult to see just how they can stay in business.

Following the recent debate of the credit crunch, market failure, economic downturn, recession….what have you it is now time to name names and point fingers.

David Cameron and Prime Minister Gordon Brown are is opposite corners and it is the conservative leader who has put some of the blame squarely on the PM’s shoulders accusing him of creating the high risk culture by borrowing heavily, de-regulating and just allowing the good times to roll which have cause the current financial crisis.

During the reign of the labour government thus far borrowing I seemingly the keyword, although in an economic downturn that will do enough to avert a forthcoming crisis.

According to Cameron “the financial recapitalization of the banking system is the right thing to do, but it’s not a triumph,” as he blames the prior irresponsibility and style of capitalism that Brown allowed to happen.

From that Cameron has called for tighter controls over bank borrowing and that the FSA should be more accountable for the economy, with tighter regulation in order to deal with incompetence as Labour’s economic policy has been scrutinized.

In his typical style Gordon brown retaliated with bravado signalling that in this current economic crisis it is “no time for a novice” even though under the Brown regime unemployment has risen at its fastest pace in over 17 years.

The U.K. unemployment rate is at its highest level in 2 years as the credit crunch has firmly hit home affecting industries from banking to construction.

As a result the claims for jobless benefits rose 31,800 to 939,900 since November 2006 which is a faster increase than the worst six months of the recession in 1992.

The increase in unemployment has coincided with the dent in popularity of Prime Minister Gordon brown and as David Tinsley, an economist at National Australia Bank indicates, that “the bounce will fade before the next election and next year’s story will be of an economy suffering and rising joblessness.”

Gordon Brown has been seen to actively make changes and the move to save banking has increased his support among U.K. voters by seven points to 33 percent.

However it is likely to be difficult times for both the Prime Minister and job hunters alike as UK banks may cut 62,000 staff in London by the end of next year.

The financial services industry is not the only one to be hit hard, however many finance professionals are likely to have to move abroad in search of work.

The professor who successfully predicted the financial crisis two years ago has now pronounced that the financial ministers (a well timed statement as 2G7 finance ministers meet in Washington to discuss the crisis) should arrange an interest rate cut around 1.5 percent in order to make sure that the world economy does not remain depressed.

Nouriel Roubini of New York University said that the best solution to increase liquidity and stimulate financial institutions would be via a temporary guarantee of all bank deposits.

In his words it will require “a significant change in leadership of economic policy and very radical, coordinated policy actions among all advanced and emerging-market economies” in order to save us from an economic and financial disaster.

With the worst week in history for most stock markets, the MSCI World Index was set for its biggest weekly decline since records began in 1970.

Currently there is the global fear of a world wide stock market crash similar to what happened in 1987 when US stock prices fell by 20 percent.

With the IMF (International Monetary Fund) behind the idea it seems as though Roubini has strong and powerful backers and with the severity of the threat facing the world action must be expected soon.