ANZ retirement savings confidence survey shows less than half of all savers are confident of achieving goals

Making time for the future; The faithful employee; Tips for the anti-shopper; NZ Super fund's top 10 holdings; I.T. innovations that will help the taxman

Lessons from a $200K mistake; Early retirement extreme; Too poor for our houses; Women in finance; "No strippers please, we're economists"

Kiwis' still spending more than they earn, although dis-savings are declining, new Stats NZ measure shows

Neville Bennett examines the corrosiveness and depth of NZ's inequality of wealth in the second of a two-part series. Your view?

This is the first of a two-part series by Neville Bennett exploring the nature of inequality in New Zealand. Your view?

NZ saves NZ$3.2 bln in year to March 2010 as spending growth slows to weakest in 17 years

Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard has said any suggestion that New Zealand incomes could be raised to match Australia was unrealistic and New Zealand should instead do its best to 'catch the crumbs falling off Australia's table'. Bollard told Guyon Espiner in TVNZ's Q&A programme that Australia's mineral wealth gave it natural advantages. GUYON You said something interesting about potential to catch up with Australia in November 5 last year in a speech you said "“ we talk about catching up with Australian incomes but we have a better chance of taking advantage of their growth. Is that an admission that catching up with Australia's income and wealth is simply unrealistic for New Zealand? ALAN Yes, I don't think we can catch up with Australia, Australia's a most unusual country, Australia has been blessed by God sprinkling minerals across the top of the surface in very easily accessible areas in places where it doesn't annoy people to mine them. China's there buying all that, it's not rocket science, they've run the economy well, but we just don't have those advantages, but that's all good news for New Zealand because there's a lot of crumbs come off the Australian table that we can take advantage of. Australia is going to fight to keep its manufacturing sector because its exchange rate is going to stay strong or strengthen, and as that happens that's a lot of opportunities for us. I think that's how we should be looking at it. GUYON So the government should abandon its goal of catching Australia by 2025, you're saying it's a waste of time? ALAN Oh it's up to government what their goals are, but to me the most interesting thing is how can we take advantage of Australia's good luck. Here is a link to the full transcript on TVNZ's website My view:

New Zealanders' median weekly income from all sources rose by NZ$2 in the June quarter from the same time a year ago, while average income fell NZ$2,

By Neville Bennett I am drawn irresistibly to the image of Emperor Nero playing his fiddle while Rome was burning: it is a metaphor of an ebullient Wall Street elite ignoring the massive destruction of wealth that it has inflicted on the world. Moreover, incomes are also failing and I believe consumer spending will also decline. This is important as consumer spending drives about 70% of US GDP. The reality is encapsulated in Edmund Phelps's belief that it will take 15 years for American consumers to recover. Phelps won a Nobel Prize in Economics 2006. The crisis is still reducing wealth and income. I resolved to tackle this issue when I read a report that it is expected that 50% of US mortgages household will be underwater next year. Moreover incomes fell more than anytime in the last four years in June. Unemployment is headed for 10%, a several million people will have exhausted their unemployment benefits shortly.