This weekend will be the last fling of summer for many of us before we return to work in earnest. Are you feeling out of touch after a well-earned break? If so, here is a quick rundown of what's happening in the world of finance to get you back up to speed.

First, the bad news. As far as the stock market is concerned, the lunatics are still in charge of the asylum. A burst of irrational exuberance at the end of last month resulted in a significant bounce for share prices. That was before traders remembered that we are on the brink of an economic recession. (Do these self-styled masters of the Universe have the memories of goldfish?) Naturally, as soon as the worst-kept secret was out, share prices tumbled back to last month's lows. The nervousness of the markets means that there is little sign of sanity returning any time soon.

House prices, in case you haven't already guessed, have continued to slide (down 11 per cent in the past year on the Halifax index). Sales have not been helped by the refusal of our accident-prone Chancellor to quash rumours of a stamp duty holiday.

That said, mortgage rates have started to drop. It has helped that swap rates, which are used to price fixed-rate deals, have fallen. It is now possible to obtain a two-year fixed rate as low as 5.49 per cent, though you do have to pay a whopping fee. However, tracker rates that move in line with the Bank of England's base rate have also been falling as some of the biggest lenders scrabble for market share. Good deals are still out of reach for most first-time buyers because the best loans are being reserved for homeowners with more than 25 per cent equity. But the return of competition to the market is a good sign.

The most positive move, however, has been the sharp fall in the oil price, which has taken many by surprise. The price of crude has dropped by nearly a quarter in a little more than a month. If it continues to fall - and I can see no reason why it shouldn't as the global economy slows - inflation should drop sharply next year. That should give the Bank of England the courage it needs to start cutting interest rates before the year is out.

Keep that bright thought in mind as you return to the daily grind.

Your lack of savings could be disastrous in a downturn

While all the attention this summer has been on falling house prices, a worrying statistic may have passed you by: UK households are saving at the lowest rate for half a century. Latest figures show that the UK's savings ratio - the proportion of household income held in savings accounts and pensions - has tumbled to 1.1 per cent, the lowest since 1959. This would be alarming at the best of times (since the Eighties, the ratio has averaged 8 per cent), but it is doubly so at a time when unemployment is surging at its fastest rate for 16 years and there is a real risk of Britain slipping into recession.

It seems that when things get tough, savings are the first thing to go. After all, why squirrel away money when there are holidays to pay for and designer shoes to buy?

Such an attitude might be understandable if we had a large pot of savings to tide us over. I have always marvelled at the Japanese, who seem to have managed to carry on a normal life, including expensive trips to Europe, even though their economy has been mired in the depths of despair for more than a decade. But for them saving is second nature: Japan's savings ratio is an impressive 28.6 per cent. Our disregard for savings, though, leaves us dangerously exposed as the economy takes a turn for the worse.

It is easy to blame the Government, whose own finances are in a mess, for giving us little incentive to salt away our cash. Gordon Brown's £5 billion raid on pensions sent thousands of schemes to the wall. The former Chancellor also axed tax-free Peps and Tessas and replaced them with less-generous Isas.

But we all bear responsibility. As a rule of thumb, you should keep between three and six months' salary in a deposit account. And with savings rates at their highest for years, now is a great time to top up that nest egg.

While you're at it, why not improve your chances of giving your savings an instant boost by entering our great new competition. It's really easy and the top prize is £3,000. To find out more, go to timesonline.co.uk/money and look for the blue monster.

Parents squander millions with Child Trust Fund lethargy

In a little more than a week the original Child Trust Fund (CTF) babies will be six years old. You would have thought that by now parents would be used to receiving the £250 voucher from the Government; that setting up a CTF in a child's name would have become as normal a part of early parenthood as changing nappies and sleepless nights.

Not so, it seems. According to Nationwide, a quarter of all vouchers are still sitting on the sideboard unused after 12 months. This amounts to more than £248 million in vouchers and, potentially, wasted interest of £12.9 million.

I know that most new parents have other things on their minds and that their children's 18th birthdays, when they will be able to get their hands on the cash, seem a long way off, but generations of parents will tell you that it will all be over in a flash.

A quick decision about where to invest the voucher will ensure that your child's CTF will not lose that vital first year of growth. Being a parent is tough enough, so don't give your offspring yet another thing to blame you for.