It all sounds a bit like our government is concentrating on the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Are they ever going to get round to addressing the economy's key structural issues?

Does a laptop for less than the retail price of 4 Kg of cheese reflect a cheap laptop, or high cost cheese?

Well, Mr English had better sharpen up his sales patter in foreign shores.

Today's NZD 500 million Treasury bill tender bid-to-cover ratio fell to a measly 1.324.

http://www.nzdmo.govt.nz/securities/tbills/latestresults

There has been a steady downward trend in bidders enthusiasm for New Zealand Government Treasury Bill issuance since late December when the bid-to-cover ratio was 3.81.

This is not surprising since net new T bill issuance over December and January has totalled NZD 2.35 billion while the yield has tumbled from 5.125% to 3.32%.

Furthermore, the collapse of the NZD/USD currency pair after S&P revised our foreign currency credit rating from stable to negative hardly inspires foreign purchasers.

http://www.omo.co.nz/nzd_value2_lv.gif

The combination of these factors will prove lethal and we can expect the government to pay through the swap rate as the enormous additional cost of bailing out our debtors and their bankers becomes apparent to all.

http://www.omo.co.nz/nz_government_tbills_vs_bank%20bills_lv.gif

This will prove to be the trigger for a steady upward move in yields as the inflationary impact of inefficient government deficit spending works it way through the economy.

Stephen link has been removed but this from the telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/4436703/Russia-s...

The above url will not work when linked from this site. Sorry.

Putin should have addressed the speech: To the Coalition of the Willing.

:-)

You can find the speech here

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12087&ref=patrick.net

Since the private banker and their subsidiary multinational corporation tag team descimated Russia by economic extortion with the assistance of several previous dodgy Roger Douglas like Russian administrations, culminating in the 1990s, Putin has done a good job at repatriating much of their natural resources for the benefit of Russians instead of bleeding profits to the bogus loans of the central banking network.
I think is speech shows a real maturity in diplomacy.
He will no doubt continue to be demonised by certain central banker majority stakeholder owned multinational corporate media vehicles.

If you wish to learn exactly what the bankers did to Russia, go to this site and toggle down to the Australian ABC doco called - Looting The Russian Economy
http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/video_drugsmoney.htm

Tonz and all
Look whats happened to our debt based spending (PSC, private sector credit) wow its dropped of a cliff.This is impressive stuff.Now I know why you cannot sell your car.

http://www.agprodecon.org/node/29

I have absolutely no problem that Putin did not write his own speech. Neither did anyone else there. But all the speechwriters will have been directed on what to write and the messages to communicate.

Putin strikes me as developing a better understanding of root causes than other politicians, and has come to the realisation that major structural and cultural changes are needed. Examples, somewhat disjoint:

1.
And, finally, this crisis was brought about by excessive expectations. Corporate appetites with regard to constantly growing demand swelled unjustifiably. The race between stock market indices and capitalisation began to overshadow rising labour productivity and real-life corporate effectiveness.

Unfortunately, excessive expectations were not only typical of the business community. They set the pace for rapidly growing personal consumption standards, primarily in the industrial world. We must openly admit that such growth was not backed by a real potential. This amounted to unearned wealth, a loan that will have to be repaid by future generations.

2.
This pyramid of expectations would have collapsed sooner or later. In fact, this is happening right before our eyes.

3.
One is sorely tempted to make simple and popular decisions in times of crisis. However, we could face far greater complications if we merely treat the symptoms of the disease.

Naturally, all national governments and business leaders must take resolute actions. Nevertheless, it is important to avoid making decisions, even in such force majeure circumstances, that we will regret in the future.

4.
Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state's omnipotence is another possible mistake.

True, the state's increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. Instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent.

5.
The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.

6.
Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.

And one more point: anti-crisis measures should not escalate into financial populism and a refusal to implement responsible macroeconomic policies. The unjustified swelling of the budgetary deficit and the accumulation of public debts are just as destructive as adventurous stock-jobbing.

And how does what NZ is doing, or anticipating doing, compare against that?

Thanks for that link AJ. All I can write is WOW! I'm not so surprised at the numbers so much as by the incredible speed with which this is happening. If the late payout is an adjustment of the early payout then the price could push the $3 per level. This is going to devastate farm realty numbers, given that the shares go with the farm. It will be interesting to see who buys up distressed farms.

"And how does what NZ is doing, or anticipating doing, compare against that?"

Well, leaders are quiet, but busy on their calculators, no doubt (it's too late Bill+John). We are just about full of compounded debt, international bankers will soon say "these guys have tanked, pull the funding, start our debt recovery".

What a mess.......

You are not wrong Steve - we should start a sweep on predicted timing of the IMF takeover. JK does have one option - go against the tide, urgently reform our money system using Kiwibank as the retail vehicle and start concentrating on an internal production/consumption economy. In other words, they need to do the scenario planning for a self-sustaining economy. They should be purchasing stockpiles of drugs, medical equipment and other necessities not manufactured here, not building roads.

@Steve - I agree about your comment about ¨..NZ sector will continue to produce, it's a biological system that knows nothing of economics...¨

The only problem I have is who do you think will own the ag sector when it all goes bust, foreigners will all come in making use of the very low NZ dollar and buy up large. Our last remaining sector that is still substantially in the hands of NZ'ers will no longer be ours. How do we make good on the current account deficit then eh ?

What is the solution - bail out the farmers ??? It's hardly fair on all the other NZ'ers that have to wear debt deflation the hard way but the alternative is rather grim. Should we be treating the agriculture sector like the NZ equivalent of the UK/US financial sector?

What a dilemna we've gotten ourselves into !

Bill English is lashing out at Kiwibank for excessive mortage break fees. Regardless of this beeing correct or not, it's unusual for Minister to giving bad publicity to state owned bank, and at the same time not saying anything about most profitable company in NZ laying off hundredes of staff.
Was it him saying Kiwibank needs to be sold?