Credit Crunch..is it just another way of saying Recession?

Media made up word for Mortgage brokers over exaggerating salaries/incomes on forms.

No. The two are separate things.

The credit crunch is basically to do with the availability of money for banks to borrow on the wholesale markets that they in turn lend to us.

The current economic downturn is being caused by separate factors and has been evident since about mid-2007. The credit problems at the time were coincidental and I don't think we've really seen the more severe knock on effects yet.

Thank you.

Loving Baron's tag.

No - the credit crunch does have an effect as a lot of the consumer spending and house price increases have been fuelled by borrowing. If there's less for the banks to lend due to the credit crunch, then in theory people have less to spend. And it's harder for people to borrow more if they are sturggling with current repayments, which makes defaults, repossessions etc mpre likely.

But it's not the same as a recession - although may be a contributing factor.

I don't think so - for example, in the housing market it isn't so much that the confidence has gone, just that no-one can borrow what they need. People would still borrow, just no-one's lending. But there still seem to be a reasonable number of job vacancies etc, it's not like the '80s/'90s with massive inflation and loads of redundancies...

There have been plenty of redundancies in banking. I work for an investment bank (although not in banking) and I get sent a weekly list of people made redundant.

true, there have been plenty of redundancies in my line, estate agency, but i don't think it's across the board yet.