Axiom being overlooked ... orders , currency and tourists flowing into NZ from foreign countries on the verge of financial collapse..???????

Simple Simon met a pieman going to the (world) fair..

Said Simple Simon to the pieman ..let me taste your wares...

Said the pieman to Simple Simon ...show me first your penny...

Said Simple Simon to the pieman indeed I have not any!

Like most people thought "lets have a hui so it looks like we are doing something". Time to get real and face facts. No time for PR talk.

Sounds like solutions being offered to a problem not yet understood.

Tonz - I love it!!!!

I agree the bike trail is a visionary IDEA in principle, although I'm not convinced how practical it will be - presumably will need to cross a lot of private land, could be issues there
but we still need the government to demand that Councils free up planning rules within urban limits to allow more medium density development. That would be a great way to boost the construction sector (and associated professions) as well as address housing affordability

The Green party will spew over the cycle way (or should that be red faced)?

Bugger, I was sure they were going to mention nationalising the credit creation base of the money supply from the foreign run independent institution called the NZ Debt Management Office and taking our golden goose back off JKs banking fraternity and returning it to the representatives of the people where it belongs.
Mark - we haven't had a true change in the government of this country since we succumbed ever surmounting central bank debt and joined the IMF in 1961. Since then, especially post the second liquidation/structural reforms of NZ INC in 1984, our/their bureaucracy in this country has been self regulating, self hiring, and has circumvented most every regulation ever put in place to prevent the resources of this nation and the efforts of its people from being stolen. Incompetent party executives that were not on the take, were no more than impotent puppets and when we got a party executive on the take, it was/is open season.

Bike track sounds like a great idea if it were not to be funded with central banker created credit, which taking into account compounding interest will add 2-3 times true value to its cost.

Turning every institution in this country into a bond issuer, borrowing money mainly from pension funds and public at higher interest rates than that of the banks because the central banking network have switched the credit/money taps off in order that they can via their subsidiaries buy everything back at cents on the dollar. Did anyone learn anything from the collapse of some 30 odd deposit taking institutions in this nation when the reneged on their side of the contract. A contract many of them never ever had any consideration to cover their sides of the bargain to begin with, because they where no more than commercial pyramid scams.

As for the last "co-investment equity fund" if anyone with half an ounce of financial literacy can not spot a mile away another Privatise the profits and socialise the losses set up, where all but stuffed.

at least everybody understands leverage now as the levers pull borrowers into line.simple answer to spend less and save more but try telling the obese to eat less and exercise more.

Basically what came out of it, is that they really don't have a solution. Small projects won't do anything, and they didn't do anything in the last depression either. They need to think big, and use human labout. Perhaps building Transmission gully, and putting a proper road through the valley of the Rimutakas could be an idea.
A cycle way is the most stupid idea I have heard of. We already have things called 'roads' spanning the length of the country, so why do we another piece of infrastructure that has little cost befefit, that will require it's own ongoing maintenance. Fibre throughtout the country is a better idea, and we can get lots of the unemployed digging trenches.

Bernard said:

"I like the bike track idea. I'd pay money to ride it, simply to avoid getting run over by a truck. I'd suggest shutting down the North Island main trunk railway (keep the profitable Auckland-Tauranga-Hamilton milk route), ripping up the tracks and laying a spectacular bike trail through the central North Island."

Bernard I am thinking in the not to distant future you may well have the opportunity to engage in such pursuits, along with the rest of us.

I would start training now for the Raurimu Spiral:

http://www.websnz.com/ttt/nzr/nzrrs.php3

The cycleway being the 'next big idea' is a rather prophetic warning really.

I think they needed to start by asking themselves - when NZ cannot raise new capital offshore to buy imported goods - what goods will we then most need to produce locally?

Having answered that question - they would then understand what skills re-training were needed.

If you put the cycleway into this context, it exposes the plain stupidity of this 'big idea'.

And how is a cycle track going to increase productivity?

Because they are perhaps being more prescient than I had otherwise given them credit for. Understanding that government involvement in the economy, these absurd stimulus packages, are going to make this crisis deeper and longer, and very possibly push us back to pre-industrial times.

Thus, don't think on this so much as a cycle-way, but rather a main highway :)

I'm applying for some of the cheap credit the RBNZ is trying to create yet again, to start the cycle (cycle, boom boom) over, to start my own rickshaw company.

Have you all looked at and considered each of the top 20 "ideas" that came from this summit? (http://www.businessday.co.nz/industries/economy/4862767).

You know, I really don't want to be a cynic, or sound negative, but I am truely struggling to read this list and not cry/laugh with embarassment. It looks like something that would come out of a little office brainstorming or 5th form classroom session. Read each "idea" and then ask yourself the questions "what exactly does this mean" and "how is this going to create sustainable economic value (and therefore, hopefully, jobs)".

Each "idea" has to be translated into tangible objective outcomes with measurable economic value, timeframes, tasks, responsibilties, required resources/funding, business case, etc. Try applying that to any of the "ideas" and you will see the problem: they are all so fuzzy and high-level they could mean anything.

Yes, I know that is "step 2" - to be done. But the point is, ideas are worth nothing unless there is a clear way to achieve value from the idea - otherwise it is just hot air. In business/investment, you can't just throw up ideas - they have to be credible, there has to be a means to getting value that everyone who hears the idea can grasp.

Throwing up ideas (without them needing to be inherently credible) is a mindlessly easy thing to do. Identifying credible ideas, and then making them deliver value, is the real challenge.

So what is the plan from here? Is someone, with some profile, going to be made responsible for constructing these "ideas" into economic value-adding outcomes? And how much ongoing transparancy and rigour will be applied to it, so we will all know at an objective, measurable level in the future if these "ideas" are delivering or not?

Sorry, this looks as useful/less as the "Knowedge Wave" conference, for which, a few years later, we can clearly see no measurable value has come from it.

Who are these losers that promote themselves as luminaries , a cycle track what a joke these leaders had the gore to have a packed lunch served up to them because there was no time or money to waste most of New Zealand myself included have some form of packed lunch most days but this unique experience must have been life changing for them. And it was A PUSH BIKE TRACK..... WAS THE END RESULT.
And what is its purpose maybe Allan Bollard could inlightn me so here we have it 4000
peasant kiwis with pick and shovel scratching there way from Bluff to cape wherever and who cares all paid for by the tax payer... A name might be the HO--KEY-MIN-TRAIL.
Baz

How about this idea - the NZ goverment should insist that Air New Zealand only supply home grown NZ beer on its flights - just like its much flouted NZ premium wine rhetoric, instead of the foreign branded swill it palms off now. With all the international award winning beer from small breweries that's available, there'd be no shortage of contenders. Think of the oppotunites for the small time boutique brewers and the new jobs that could create. Plus we could all get drunk ............... winners all round.

I'm amazed about the reaction of some writers. In my opinion many are demanding the wrong processes at the wrong time.

This isn't an ordinary recession, and without wise decision-making a catastrophic scenario for our country will emerge. I think we are in a process where philosophical questions and solutions become more important then purely economical ones.
A new pattern of ways we are doing business and what products/ services are required to compete and to make our life's more sustainable right now and in the future need to be ask.
Production ? Who currently needs what- buys and pays and how much for products ? In general - nobody. What skills are required in the future? Asking for skill, like a few writers do here, is costly a time- process, and therefore to late (**see Switzerland) anyway. To many politicians, especially coming from the national party unfortunately couldn't see the need for apprenticeships in good times.
Major companies are now forced into a position to react rather then act. In the current situation companies are struggling to employ people, but especially unable to train and teach them skill.

So, to prepare and avoid disaster the sequences of actions are important.

Short term priorities:
1 To keep a reasonable standard in security, health and employment younger people need to be occupied. (Cycle way/ Green army etc.) The project(s) also support our tourism industry.

2 Processes, which support (employment) our major industries and services - especially Schools/ hospitals.

3 Processes, which support (employment/ skill) valuable and new industries/ services for our country.

**As an example Switzerland where I come from is a highly skilled nation with approx 90% of all young people staring up a 2 1/2 -4 years apprenticeship or go to the university "“ result in an upcoming depression scenario = extremely bad. High industrialised countries suffer the most.

Walter

Bernard: "I like the bike track idea. I'd pay money to ride it,"

Thats going to come back and bite you m8

OK any sponsers guys?

interested????

the government paying someone the dole and the government paying someone to create a bike track is the same. In both cases the government has to pay, where does the government get its money from??? Remember the government is ALWAYS broke and has to get money from private citizens by taxing or by borrowing from the world bankers.

The IMF wants NZ to go into debt, it then allows them to take over the country.

I am with you Kate on this. Let's pray they're not looking at this output.

Are we able to get a list of those who attended. The cycle trail sounds like one of those funky ideas, someone from SPARC and or local government would come up with.

TONZ from Japan certainly does not have his head buried in the sand.

"HO-KEY-MIN-TRAIL" superb. Whatever comes out of the summit this will stick.

Key is not thinking unnecessarily big. He's playing his cards close to his chest.

The cycle track will show it's true worth in 2011.

Love your work Kate.

sorry, hit the submit button by mistake, continuing on......
because it was in debt by way of loans from the very elements it ideologically opposed.
Why did they borrow money from their enemy, because they controlled the international reserve currency, the currency most trusted for across border trade.
So Dave, its wearing a bit thin and dim mate. Don't be so gross generalist.

All here know what you and a number of others have tried to paint me as.

I are not a fundamentalist Social Creditor. I do not adhere to all of CH Douglas writings like some kind of bible. I am a person seeking to research the best from the best successful debt free BASED monetary solutions of the past, solutions to remove corruption from being a yolk around the neck of Democracy and Capatalism and get them into the public eye, in a hope that someone, somewhere, somehow might be in a position to reinstate decency into what has currently become a clearly corrupted, fraudulent game of high stakes poker.
After all, lets face it, how fairly wealth is didtributed all comes down to the decency of the strongest element of the time.
I would suggest that their have been in history fair, reasonable and decent dictatorships in which the living standards of the common peoples have exceeded that of those in a system with a corrupt, ruthless "elected" leaders.
Its all comes down to decency of leadership and in the global sense, how many decent leaderships you have at anyone time. Then if they screw it up at the National and International level, it comes down to the decency of the splinter groups or denominations within those failed systems as to whether they fight back with violence of by diplomatic means.
The two keys for me, are the control of the "credit creation mechanism" and removing "compounding interest" and "speculative money flows" from the system.

interested Says:
"4000 pick and shovel jobs is 4000 jobs, thats a good thing, min wage better then dole any day"¦.
we need another 10 of these ideas, my grandfather worked on napier taupo road during the great depression, in the labour camps, sounds familliar"¦"

My Father and Grandfather built those concrete bridges in the middle of nowhere by hand...and the wages where sent back to the family to put basic food on the table, and cloths on their backs...stimulating local economy.
It also brings in an old saying "idle hands make the devils work"...

Key was descried before politics as "The Smiling Assassin" and I take this as a complement to him...Those who get behind pulling NZ out of the mess, it will be tough, you make not like it, if those who dont want to pull they are the ones who this country cant afford to keep and they will be the ones who suffer....badly.

Kate, even so, life is still going on. Most people have a job and are paying their rates, power and mortgage etc. Subway restaurant still has a queue. So does warehouse and Mcdonalds. The roads are still full of cars driving somewhere. People are walking around with shopping bags. Cafes are full. For the average person interest rates have fallen.
We read that everything is bad but to walk around the city it is not evident?
When do we see some real evidence other than what we read in the papers?

hahaha, well perhaps with the bike track many can set out in search of the knowledge economy....hehehe...

castles in the air,nothing will get built but a lot of things will get sold or sold out over the next three years.

An interesting article by Frosty Wooldridge (US), which is surprisingly close to ideas from the Job summit:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty446.htm

After all there are some clever, visionary people out there, who think positive and really care about the future including our environment, employment, the younger generation, social peace, etc.

I'm 100% behind a NZ bicycle track.

but there is a cycleway now- its called State Highway 1

A decent 4-6 lane motorway the length of NZ and a tunnel built on top of Cook Strait seabed is what is required

@ Steve,
Here another link: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/wir.html
Of course all good proposals make sense.
But as I wrote earlier to prepare and avoid disaster the sequences of actions are important.

What is your "out of the norm idea" to tackle an upcoming situation of thousand's of especially younger people not having a job ?

In my opinion a series of connecting cycle trails around the country would be a very good idea. Cycle touring in New Zealand can be extremely dangerous, and I don't think visiting tourers understand this. The main problem is that the shortest routes between attractions are often crowded with cars and trucks (state highways). There are some good back roads that if properly identified could form a backbone of sorts. A little extra roading to remove the dead ends and 'BoB's your uncle, you have a cool tourist attraction.
What is being missed in this suggestion of 'yet another tourist attraction' is the efficiency of cycling. This country spends huge amounts of money on roads, cars, petrol. A more effective suggestion would be completely separated cycle lanes along commuter routes. Then you will see some savings as people move to more efficient means of transport as a way of increasing the amount the can repay on loans.