Bollard's statements about the recession (particularly the comment about data being revised to the point that 'we may not even have had one') are looking more and more threadbare - I see some economist are already forecasting that Q4 of 2008 was a bust with GDP shrinkage of -0.6% (I think it is nearly impossible for it to be any better than Q3). Given the meltdown in the dairy payout, slumping manaufacturing, a tourism industry that is about to fall off the cliff and surging unemployment, which will keep the consumer from spending, there is every possibility that all 4 quarters of 2009 will be negative as well. I really think Bollard deserves to be challenged on his forecasts - there appears to be far too much deference from the establishment on his pronouncements (how about giving him some flack at the post RBNZ IR change press conference?). People making investment decisions on what he has predicted are likely to make expensive wrong calls.

More on dairy - Agrifax reckon Fonterra will come in at $5.15:
http://www.nzx.com/markets/NZSX/NZX/announcements/4802849

Another good article, Neville. Do you see parallells with NZ in late 1966? The wool price crash fed through the economy and in early 1967 the first real recession since the war kicked in. It took 3+ years for NZ to recover. Wool was 30+% of exports prior to 1966 and badly affected by the global slowdown. This was also largely due to US problems, which then were primarily due to the war in Vietnam. Dairy now is 20+% of exports, but the payout drop will have a similarly big effect. Deja vu all over again? Have a good Xmas everyone.

Come on folks we have not been reduced to such wimpering servants that we now read such things below that were contained in Nevilles article and not even question them now using their bogus created credit to now directly buy up the Realsector when it was the overlending of more of their non backed electronically created credit than the Realsector could ever collectively repay that pushed it into bankruptcy in the first place. The second disgusting point that everyone would appear not have a problem with, is that this is a private conglomerate we are talking about, an organised crime gang of mamoth proportions that deserve to have their assets seized and returned to the masses from who they stole them, most definitely not have us stand by and allow them to buy directly with there couterfeit currency at cents on the dollar the assets at shattered prices compared to what the Realsector was recently loaned at compounding interest to buy them. They are at the same time now reducing the availability of Money/credit to the Realsector, it is sick and disgusting;

Quotes from article-
"The BOE may be considering direct purchase of assets, and expanding its balance sheets to pump cash into banks. It could be the first time since the 1970s that the Bank of England has targeted the volume of cash in the economy, by using its balance sheet, rather than the price of money through interest rates. The Telegraph explains that the bank would print money by buying securities through its Ways and Means account."

"QE is another word for printing money. The ECB supremo Trichet admitted "We are supplying liquidity on an unlimited basis." This may be called legerdemain as the Maastricht Treaty prohibits the ECB from injecting stimulus by purchasing the government debt of the euro zone's fifteen states debt "“ a method known as "monetizing the deficit", or more crudely as "printing money"."

"But it can achieve the same effect, the Telegraph observes, by mopping up sovereign debt, mortgage securities, or even company debt on the open market, as the Fed has already begun to do. At the moment the ECB accepts some of these assets as collateral in exchange for loans, but it has not yet hit the atomic button by buying them outright with its own freshly-minted fiat money."
END

Those with a true interest in international monetary mechanism's I am sure will find the very latest article from one of the very best nothing but rivetting;
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/zero_percent_t-bills.php

Remember every non backed electronically created dollar that enters the system further devalues what is already in existance.

HSBC become one of the first organizations to predict overall global GDP to shrink in 2009 (the worst global performance since 1947):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3982570...

Plenty more economists/forecasters will be scrambling to come to this particular party methinks.

"I imagine my monetary economics lecturers squirming when I hear the term. They were of the Austrian school, for Hayek had left an imprint in neo-classical economics at LSE."
I understand that Austrians believe that the Great Depression was caused by monetary inflation. The rapid expansion in the money supply made the bust inevitable.
For those that are interested in the Austrian view check out www.mises.org and listen to some of the MP3 on the Great depression.

Friedman and the Monetarists believe the Depression was not caused by the preceding monetary inflation. Instead, they believe the Fed did not supply enough money before and during the Depression. Monetarists believe that any recession could have been avoided had more money been pumped into the system.
The Keynesians believe that it is an issue of confidence. http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north193.html

I did not think one could be an Austrian and a Monetarist?

If the Austrians are correct all this intervention is going to make things much worse.
I lean towards the Austrian view.

recession is a piece of cake if you have been drawing a university salary for 37 years.you would have to have been insulated from at least three recessions in that time.you need a sense of detachment to comment intelligently but that is easy after the event,as he is still working for salary then he never saw it coming either!

New Zealand needs to de-couple from the US economy as much as possible and concentrate on building closer relationships with what appears to be a strengthening Asian alliance. The more we can reduce our debt in US dollars, the better. I would even advocate canceling tax cuts to households. It might also be a good time to discuss a common currency between Australia and NZ and replace our dollar in favour of an ANZAC dollar.

Common sense dictates that all of these US dollars, Euros and Pounds being printed will have to be absorbed back in the form of higher interest rates and higher taxes. Given the size of the injection, this could take a decade or more to work out. We need to picture what that world will look like and position our economy to come out of the gate first. This means sharper pain over the short haul, but will attract relationships with those economies that emerge from the dust early. I will be glad if we avoid the hyper-inflation I fear will plague other OECD countries.

Andrew Ferrier and the Fonterra Board made the right moves at the wrong time, and read the curve wrong. Things would have been bad enough were it not for Sanlu. Fonterra was foolish for assuming counter-party risk in a market they proved incredibly ignorant about. The cap on damage payments to victims is already sparking outrage in China. Trials have just begun for dairy managers in China and Sanlu's manager is the first in the docks. The fallout from this venture could bankrupt our dairy industry. If I were in government I would begin to think about nationalizing our industry.

Lets nationalise Fontera so it can be thrown in the kitty with the remainder of our vital infrastructure - electricity, water - when in the new year we are going to be forced by our foreign financiers to once agian sell what little we have left to their subsidiary multinational corporations to pay down our exponentially exploding current account balance/net debt that we are now unable to meet the repayments on.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4800875a6871.html
If we dont liedown as we did previously in 1961 and 1984 they will devalue our dollar into obliteration just as they did with Zimbabwe when they refused to succumb to the same threats when they cottoned on that the privately owned central banking conglomerate had set them up.
Lets just surrender and give them a monopoly on all of our food, water, shelter in order that all that are not co-operatives of our masters are mere servants in what is suposedly their home of equal opportunity.
Or we could join the fight back against the private bankers and reinstate the successful alternatives of debt free based public monetary systems that have been used in the past. Show some courage enter the struggle while there still exists a few nations of strength that have continued to resist the private banker organised crime gang and their massive commercial pyramid scam.
We have the massive advantage of currently being able to self sustain our population. I say currently because the Powers That Be on the committees within the UN, that plan just what population each nation should maintain, have in mind a population of 20 million for NZ, all in the interest of free market growth of course.

Iain Parker is correct in calling for the nationalization of Fonterra, as unlikely as that will be, unless there is a farmer revolt. The Fonterra Board is indenturing the Kiwi farmer to reduce their clout in the corporation. In so doing, our main export industry will soon be under the control of foreign bankers and shareholders. Allan Bollard will do well to maintain as strong a New Zealand dollar as possible and resist calls from the G20 to do our bit to loosen the money supply. Our economy needs to diversify or find a niche in the world economy. Debt reduction, a strong dollar, and an investment in education are the key to coming out strong at the end of this depression. Key would do well to study the New Brunswick experience in Canada. Brian McKenna took a resource economy and transferred it into an IT powerhouse during the 1970 recession.

Thanks Neville. Have read all your articles and suggest others read your older entries...You write in a easy way to understand , pleased to state we did with our excess assets, property, debt what you suggested....What goes up must come down...

For those of you who like your bad news of the worldwide debt crisis delivered on the lighter side, go to this website and watch the Silly Money videos, very up to date and although the news is alarming it is told in a hilarious way with with same brilliant takes off of world leaders and other major players;

http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/video_drugsmoney.htm

SimonD- finally tracked it down, the figures were from a report by Transurban
http://www.transurban.co.nz/frameprofile.html

report;
http://www.transurban.co.nz/pubgrowth.html

In the longer term, major external migrationary pressures on New Zealand must be assumed in the context of global population growth and distribution. If today's world population of 6 billion was evenly spread over world habitability zones with no significant limitations for extensive habitation(Doxiadis & Papaioannou:1974, New Zealand would theoretically have a population of 40 million. Further, in about 100 years time, the world's population is likely to double. At this time, ecumenopolis (global settlement) will be emerging which, together with associated open land, will cover the entire habitable area of the world as a continuous inter-connected urban system (Doxiadis & Papaioannou:1974). In this global context, New Zealanders' current share of the world's habitable land resources is inequitable and, in the future, likely to be untenable. New Zealand has the choice of planning for future inevitable migration in a sustainable manner.

Over the last 100 years, New Zealand's average annual increase in population was 1.7 %. Assuming this rate of growth could be sustained in the future, New Zealand could have a population of 20 million in 100 years time. Assuming a continuation of past trends of population concentration, at least 60% of these people are likely to be in Northland/Auckland/Waikato/Bay of Plenty, in which case this urban region could be home to 12 million people.

SimonD - It is amazing how many people these days right off anyone who begins to investigate outside the square of what is presented in the mainstream education or governance. Instantly accusing people with investigative minds of being "Conspiracy Theorists" like they are some kind of instant lepers. I find this is amazing when anyone who has studied enough of history knows that recorded human history is chapter after chapter of the few conspiring to exploit the many by means of slavery proper or financial trickery. Slavery proper still exists in more countries of the world today than those it doesn't. If it were not for a few people remaining inquisitively vigilant against the ever present allure of the proceeds of corruption or slavery many people would not have the little freedom they have today.
So if a number of coincidences in my life have led me to be inquisitive of commercial pyramid scams that see a few exploit the many by nothing but trickery, it is something I am extremely proud of, not the least bit embarrassed of. In-fact as it unfolds by the day, I am becoming less embarrassed by the day.

Simon you have dismissed the population forecasts of Transurban as the gibbering of a two bob small-time Kiwi operator. But, with respect, can I please encourage you to look deeper at the profiles and foreign institutes attended when looking at the academic advisory institutes that advise our government. You will soon realise just how many of them are foreigners from foreign institutes or Kiwis trained in foreign institutes. If you do not for a second stop and consider that in a country of our size in a world ruled by big money, that big money do not infiltrate the advisory institutes of small governments or even infiltrate small governments themselves to steal the resources and efforts of the peoples of small nations, then you are naive.
I never anymore dismiss most anything I hear or read outright without a little deeper investigation and if a little deeper investigation is given to the modern international monetary mechanisms of the last 300 years, you have rocks in your head, especially with recent events, if you don't think it is just not adding up.
So with all due respect I believe a few more need to pull their heads out of the sand, not me put mine back in.

I generally apply the philsophical principles of Occam's Razor when it comes to this sort of thing. You will need a lot more evidence to convince me than, a published article in a planning magazine, the fact that the authors are widely travelled and the fact that the AFPP had a discussion on population. Connecting all this up together and coming up with a statement like the "UN has plans for 26 million people in NZ" is cognitive dissonance.

I don't dismiss your ideas in total Iain, your points about the current debt based fiat monetary system have caused me to indulge in considerable reading and I have severe concerns about how the system is currently constructed. Let's focus on this much more important subject and shelve the 26 million population argument for another day.

Fonterra would be Ok if it hadn't paid out more than it could afford to farmers in the last few years.
It paid out more than it could afford and went on a debt binge. This resulted in unsuitable land, with high cost structure, being converted to dairy along with substantial environmental damage. I suspect they have already got access to govt funds. So now we the taxpayers are going to bail out the dairy industry. They are already a monopoly in practice if not theory, They are owned by their suppliers and its their problem and it needs to stay there, unless we want to have the most expensive milk in the world while our dairy farmers enjoy new cars and holidays overseas. The Govt cannot fix this problem and its not the taxpayer problem. Its belongs to the dairy industry, the market signals where about capital gains and it was a giant bubble on the land and a giant Ponzi scheme at Fonterra. The risks where taken by individuals and at the end of the day the responsibility needs to stay there.

Could always restrict overseas ownership of property..

SimonD - Agreed about the bigger issue, I will still however in the ever present battle to keep ones credibility intact continue my search for the exact article I read from the UN re NZ population. I stumbled across it a while back whilst looking for info in a debate I was having with Mike Moore.
I made a mistake in my last posting by saying that it is naive to think that the monetary elements have infiltrated governments and advisory institutions of small nations, the mistake was that it is naive to think they have not infiltrated governments of nations large and small. US, England, Russia, China, India none have been immune.
Check out this, go to below website then toggle down to - The Looting Of Russia.
http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/video_drugsmoney.htm

SimonD - Maybe a couple of years back I would have gone along with your advice of putting it in language that does not scare the horses. But that time is over because what once sounded incomprehensible is happening in front of our very eyes and if more people would have had the courage to tell it how they knew it was the masses would not be sleepwalking into lack of choices they face today. Some people have to be brave enough to call it before it happens. That's where you get credibility, not joining the I told you soh's. I have no hesitation in calling it before it happens, because if you study enough of economic history you will soon learn it is not any great prophetic feat to forecast what repeats over and over for the same reasons, because of the same elements.
I have called it as I have seen it for many years now. I have suffered ridicule, but with recent events unfolding the reward for sticking to my convictions has come with the support gained from those that now acknowledge I called it right.

Steve's link to TVNz is brilliant...we are told luxury goods will feel the pinch but primary producers will be ok because of long term contracts. The spokeperson ought to look to the 1930's wheb Brazil was burning coffee and Australia dumped wheat.

Meanwhile ask MT Gibson about contracts. It had terrific contracts to supply China with iron ore (a primary product if there is one) but the buyers reneged once the spot price fell well under the contract price. undercutting is happening all over the place as some sellers have increased volumes released on the spot market e.g. BHP on spot iron ore market
once demand falls, suppliers are going to get screwed and prices will inevitably fall. That usually holds good, even in oligopoly where a few suppliers get together to maintain price through limiting output [OPEC or stevenson Scheme (tin).] because one supplier sells more than agreed.

commodites are falling very quickly at present, several went down by more than 10% in December...oil, iron, coal, aluminium

It was no spokesperson, but the leader!

"Export New Zealand chairman Ken Stevens says local exporters should be relatively well placed"

He made the New Years honors list last year,

"Export Year Business Champion Ken Stevens was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours list."

He should know........

This from the USA milk producers . last weeks update

CHEESE MARKET COMMENTS: Prices for block cheese on the CME this week gave a last heave, and
dropped to the CCC support level. Barrels were close. Block prices have now fallen 14 straight trading days, a
total drop of $.6575 per lb. since December 9th. Dairy Market News reports that buyers are simply not willing to
carry inventory over the year end, so stocks are building at manufacturing plants' warehouses. There have been
no particular pieces of news to account for the drop to support. Cheese has joined nonfat dry milk at support
level, butter at just above support, and dry whey continuing to be sold below the cost of producing the product.
Somber news, indeed.

NONFAT POWDER COMMENTS: Product continues to move into warehouses leased by the Commodity
Credit Corporation. Some sales this week may have been made by other than California plants, but located in the
West. The total amount now owned by CCC represents a full month's worth of production. DMN reports that
buyer interest is moving steadily lower.

Fonterra is toast! Who is funding their present operation, I bet its you and me. This National Govt lacks the courage to do what it needs to, it lacks balls.

Just how bad are things going to get for dairy? News here that the Westland co-op is actually asking for 45c/kg of money already paid out to farmers to actually be PAID BACK because the earlier estimates were too rosy:

http://www.agridata.co.nz/blog/

Note also the piece highlights the problems to tourism on the West coast, and the fact that debt worries are now rapidly mounting for dairy farmers.

Oh yes the "accounts"

That man OVER THE LAST 10 Years claims to have had an AVERAGE return on funds of 20% PER YEAR. What legend, even Maddof couldn't claim to make that much!

Gee the rest of the farming community must feel pretty dumb getting returns of 0-5% p.a.

Oh hang on maybe he is adding the increase in value of his capital base (land) in as an income (return), opps. Is this quite right? So the only way to realise that return is too sell the whole lot up.?

Re-read the article, oh dear there are no dates for the which trading year is quoted, great reporting, reads well, gives warm fuzzies, short on detail, lets face it the guy is a vet (everybody loves animal doctors). How can he fib?

"Counter-balancing its criticism of Labour's emission trading legislation has been Landcorp's initiative in backing emerging green-energy technology"
I thought they are supposed to be farmers?

Wow Peter, how come that doesn't make it to print? How does Kelly get to say 20% when it's not even 1%. How hard is it to get the acurate landcorp picture, and why doesn't it get published? (Except on some blog about our recession being a peice of cake)???

Steve,

I have probably commented on agricultural journalism enough for the time being.

Landcorp's last 4 annual reports are here - why there are now only 4 available I am not sure:

http://www.landcorp.co.nz/business/annualreports.aspx

Some are art forms in obscuring farm profit from the casual observer/journalist.

That may partially answer your question about why there is no in depth media analysis of Landcorp performance, but in no way excuses the performance itself. That is partially the result of governance and political issues, but also includes the whole ponzi scheme that is built around NZ's agricultural production.

Yep Landcorp has distorted farm prices beyond the relm of reality, the purchase of Parakanapa Station in Gisborne was just as bad. Now vendors veiw this as a bench mark, and realestate agents see it as a stumbling block to future sales. While I may not agree with Landcorps practices, I can't say that I haven't benefited from them, so I guess I had better not moan too much.

I just wonder when it will all catch up?

.

Oh and I like this bit;

"Landcorp takes the view that NZ IFRS is not an appropriate basis for internal financial management and for management reporting. The company's publicly presented financial statements will, from now on, include a presentation of Landcorp's results excluding the impact of NZ IFRS"

Can anyone enlighten me on NZ IFRS and its effect?

Andrewj,

The question is whose currency gets trashed the most. Everyone is in the same ponzi scheme of debt based currency. look at the proud pound........the dollar has the advantage of being the reserve currency otherwise it would be getting the same treatment.

some serious belt tightening is coming in '09.

I recall a person sounding amazingly similar to "Andrewj" bringing Landcorp "spin" to the attention of a National MP Craig Foss about 18 months ago. Obviously to no avail.
Also participated in several meetings with others at Treasury closer to 2 years ago expressing concern over Fonterra and the dairy industries obvious ignorance of basic production economics ("more profit from producing more" seems still to be the mantra) - also to no avail.
But if you think spin is confined to just one of the "primary industry"'s SOE's, compare Treasuries report on return to agriculture's spend on R&D, education and extension with the conclusions the woefully agriculturally illiterate journalists were fed.
(Treasury paper WP 06/01 "The role of R&D in productivity growth: the case of agriculture in New Zealand: 1927-2001).
May seem dated but the methodology used in analysing economic benefit within farming is, if anything, now even more distorted than then.
The current fiasco can be directly linked to this.
PeterR should be encouraged to reflect more on these issues?

This is crazy, I smell a rat, why would you jack up the percived farming results of an operation that recives most of its $ from development and asset sales and revaluations and the government?

Well I guess that makes it easier to justify the massive $136m p.a. rental of uneconomic land.

Who in landcorp will benefit from this, and how are they associated with the owners of the rented land?

How can landcorp and it's banks say this;

NZ IFRS requires these shares to be classified as a liability. Management and Landcorp's funding banks consider these to be equity.

Somebodys got it pretty wrong.

Deloitte or ANZ National & Westpac Banks, and Landcorp.?

All,

The figures for the operating lease commitments of Landcorp in their 2008 annual report sum to $136 million. That will increase as more land is converted. We don't know the period the commitment covers. The information the annual report provides on operating lease commitments for 2008, 2007 is $million:

Within one year: 3.221, 2.434
One to two years: 3.461, 2.733
Two to five years: 11.363, 8.265
Later than five years: 117.565, 115.554

What we can say is that it appears that Landcorp has lease commitments for hundreds of millions of dollars spread over decades for land that possibly can't be farmed profitably and probably should have remained in pines.

Steve,

As to when the disaster will catch up with Landcorp, I think that the Sunday Star article is a response to pressure suggesting that it has started.

But Landcorp's issue with IFRS accounting is nothing compared to Fonterra's. Fonterra required an exemption to allow it to count farmers shares as equity when they are in fact debt under IFRS. This is why Fonterra is as Andrewj would describe it 'toast' as soon as their total milk supply starts reducing and more shares are redeemed than issued. That is a certainty once payout goes under $6.00 per Kg of Milk Solids.

Fonterra annual reports:
http://www.fonterra.com/wps/wcm/connect/fonterracom/fonterra.com/Our+Bus...

BJR,

I think you are hinting at systemic failures. I am thinking about that, but NZ is not ready to accept the concept yet. But within six months systemic failure will be mainstream thinking in agriculture and beyond.

Andrewj, They just have to keep pulling the cows tits!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/02/business/02dairy.php

Whose tits are Fonterra pulling?

Incidently, I have spent the last 3 weeks in Sarawak, Borneo. It is interesting to note the signs of exported　product stalling, China and Japan are big customers ....like most countries the majority are oblivious even though jobs in some sectors are being lost.

As an example of downturns... in the remote river town of Kapit, in the heart of Borneo (no road to Kapit,only the river and an airstrip) the locals are only getting 2RM ( ringgat) a kg for rubber where a few months ago it was 7.80 RM (Japan and China have cut back) . Palm oil is at a 21 year low.The timber, in particular plywood for export has slowed. Sarawak has vast oil and gas fields but the state only gets 5% back as the majority of the money from these resources goes into the Malaysian Federal pot (apart from money gained from service industries associated with the oil/gas industry)

The ripple effect from the worldwide economic downturn is insidiously creeping everywhere.

SimonD - it is a disgrace what the international financial elite did to the wider population of Russia. Of course their elitist elements were as much apart of the commercial pyramid scam as any one else.
You better be careful in saying things like the Putin led administration after realising they were being ripped off blind could be justified in reappropriating the resources of Russia to benefit as many Russians as possible, not continuing to pay ransom to the worlds wealthiest slaveminded 1%, some dimwitted fools will start calling you Communist.
The fools have called me a Communist when I have stated I dont know how many times that I am all for someone who Labours twice as hard or produces twice as much being allowed to accumulate twice as much of the means of exchange.All I want to see is corruption removed from Capatalism and Democracy to have it work as it is being sold to us but currently not delivered.

Steve,

It was no spokesperson, but the leader!

"Export New Zealand chairman Ken Stevens says local exporters should be relatively well placed"

He made the New Years honors list last year,

"Export Year Business Champion Ken Stevens was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours list."

He should know"¦"¦..

what and what not to say to eventually earn a gong from the establishment.

Thought you were offering someone an opportunity to suggest completion of the sentence.

Anyone know how Fonterra's latest auction went last night?

Thanks chas - not as bad as some feared but 9.3% drop in a month is still pretty chunky......

Alcoa (aluminium smelting) slash 13,500 jobs and production by 18%:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVEsV0iAyfDw&refer=home

Its a race between the aluminium smelters to shut down production, and the workers at the Rio Tinto plant down in Southland must be feeling a little bit uneasy..........

I notice that according to ANZ commodity prices in Dec recored their broadest fall in 20 years. Every commodity(except apples) fell. the index fell 7.4% in dec., fifth conseq fall. Pelts down 62% from Nov!. Alum 20% wool and dairy "more than 12%"' Wool is only 2% more than in 1986. (Another report says it is "unsaleable")

contrary to Dr Bollard the recession is deepening. I write research for some clients and have been struck by downturn in USA..amazing number of malls in trouble... UK retail poor with Woolworths closing, even Marks closing lots osf stores.

most significant single piece of news....US Treasury auctioned notes.. vast demand for ZERO interest... some investors sitting in bombshelters..want only to find a safe mattress.

light at end of tunnel? possibly in copper prices bottoming

This piece may have run its course but i would like to thank all contributers...I THINK THE BLOG HAS ESTABLISHED A PRIMA FACIE CASE FOR LOOKING AT FONTERRA AND LANDCORP MORE CRITICALLY..THANK

I guess my biggest gripe is that people look at that 20%, go to the feild days, talk to the banker, emulate what they have seen. Capital value increases mask the economic productive truth. People see the big purchases of farms at massive cost, reads that Landcorp makes 20% on these purchases per year has done for the last 10 years. Bankers belive it, lend HUGE amounts of money, creating a debt that can only just be serviced, at low interest rates, at $6.90/kgms payout budgets, with easily available credit, and the promise of increasing demand from emerging ecomomies.

Is this truthful?

Doh!
Just had a look at the bottom.

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