IMF
Short for the International Monetary Fund, a part of the United Nations which encourages international trade and gives financial help to poor countries or countries in temporarily difficult economic situations
If the economic situation gets much worse, the government will have to ask the IMF to help by loaning us huge amounts of cash.

WTO
Short for World Trade Organisation, an international organisation that controls trade between countries
The Director General of the WTO says he's disappointed that talks in Geneva on trade liberalisation have not reached an agreement.

protectionism
the actions of a country to help its trade or industry by taxing goods bought from other countries
The government sees these higher taxes on imported goods as a form of unfair protectionism.

global economic crisis
serious, negative financial situation which affects a lot of countries around the world
Almost all the major currencies have been affectedly by the current global economic crisis.

downturn
a reduction in the economy or business activities
The economic downturn has meant that factories are producing less and as a result are making more and more of their staff redundant.

slump
when prices, values or sales fall suddenly
There's been a real slump in house prices in the last few months and we're finding it very difficult to get people interested in buying our house just now.

contract
become smaller
The drop in the dollar meant the economy contracted very quickly.

negative equity
when a house becomes less valuable than the amount of money you borrowed in order to buy it
It's the wrong time to try and sell our house just now. The market has slumped so much, we won't make a profit. We'd make a loss, actually and then we'd be facing negative equity.  

mortgage
an agreement between you and a bank which allows you to borrow money to buy a house or flat. Most people repay the amount (along with interest) monthly over 20 or 25 years
We're almost ready to retire and have just finished paying off our mortgage.

default on a mortgage
fail to pay your monthly mortgage
More and more people are defaulting on their mortgages in this recession which means that the banks are repossessing more and more homes.

don't take that tone with me
don't speak to me in that way (in an angry way, a cheeky way, a rude way etc.)

I'm warning you
I'm letting you know that I'm very serious about what I just said (i.e. don't speak to me in a cheeky way)

transformed
changed completely so that it is improved

stretch (informal)
have enough of something (here, money)