Powell lays out the inflation option explicitly; Japanese retail rises; China promises yet another stimulus package; German inflation tops out; Aussie retail sales impress; UST 10yr 3.10%; gold and oil soft; NZ$1 = 62.2 USc; TWI-5 = 70.4

Asset holders.

Great rebuttal ..

Awesome. I'm up at 5am each day as a matter of course to beat the traffic because someone figured out you could crank house prices by adding millions of people to Auckland over the course of 30 years and never upgrading the infrastructure, because then someone might have to pay more tax at some point. So I think I have that one covered. 

Blessed times, still getting the benefit of earlier decades' efforts to boost affordable supply. Relatives of mine bought their Wellington house for less in the 1990s for than their annual household income, while in their late 20s.

My favourite example to bring up here is how much the old bone-in roast lamb leg cost, a feature of ye olde family Sunday roasts.

They run about $40 - $50 now. That's about 30% of my weekly food shop. 

Plus I can't afford to get together with my family on weekends because a) we all live across the city and we'd end up driving about 30km to see each other and that costs too much and b) some of my family ended up leaving because Auckland was too expensive, even for DINKY YoPros.

But sure, iPhones or whatever. 

The daughters cot/pram combination was bought at a garage sale. Its mattress had cat fur all in it. But yes, probably did have cheese in the fridge.

Yep, but only one variety, cheddar!!  No cell phone, wifi, flat whites, craft beer.  We drank cask wine and Speights.  Envious? 

Wow, sounds the same then.

Yes timing is everything and the Boomers were first in line.., the point is they pulled the ladder up at every opportunity and the frustration is that they wont admit to that. 

People who are legitimately frustrated by the all time high cost of housing declaring the boomers to be at fault for that is the rub, they were simply doing the best they could with what they had.

I think you'll find it's the spending decades stacking the deck politically and financially in their favour and then offering ill-informed snark and judgement on struggling young Kiwis that is actually the reason people are pissed off, all the while pretending they haven't benefited from a huge intergenerational wealth transfer in their favour and that it was all down to hard work or not going to cafes or whatever dross they dream up.

I think that what people are a bit pissed off about is that after benefitting from being born in the time they were born in they subsequently voted to bring in measures that pulled out all the things that made that time so affordable so they could hog all the good stuff. 

Saying it was easier is just pure maths. No one should be against basic mathematics.

Tell me this GV while you're blaming Boomers (and in this you're give a derogatory bent to the name, so don't talk about name calling!), we are several generations of politicians and voters past the Boomer blocks and nothing has changed. The policies do not talk about changing what has and is being done. Basically it is just more of the same. Why and what are you going to do about it?

But it's worse. The World is now facing the effects of unrestrained population growth for 2000 years. That growth has led to an exponential growth in the consumption of resources which has resulted in the current environmental problems we face. Culturally we have bet on a religious based political system which is fundamentally based in a BS myth that essentially says God will fix everything and denies what is in front of our own eyes. That culture and politics has built in a class structure based on wealth, and those at the top do not stop accumulating, and put more effort into denying to others what they themselves desire. In doing this they have bought generations of politicians who make up the very policies that will kill us all in the end. Correspondents like PDK talk at length about EROEI, but this conversation while accurate, still misses the point. The problem is population size nothing else. No one anywhere, talks about a planetary sustainable population that will not destroy the planet. Frankly until this happens, we are stuffed!

You really think the reason think boomers get shit is not because of their outdated reckons that lack self-awareness and because they lived an 'average lifestyle'? Golly, and the victim complex for millennials was supposed to be bad.

DP

NATO prepared for confronting Russia since 2014 — Stoltenberg

That's your hand???

Well I'll raise you 30,000 civilian deaths (almost 300 children), 20,000 Ukrainian soldier casualties, similar Russian, thousands of tanks and artillery destroyed,  cities razed to the ground, grain and farming equipment looted, famine imminent in many parts of the world due to Ukrainian grain shortages.  All actual facts that were caused by Putin's invasion of Ukraine but yeah, a bigger conversation is the same thing. Delusional apologist. 

Interesting take. We'll see ...

I agree PDK he is a player, and he could have been stopped early if there had been the political will. But he is also camouflage for the real problems, the root of which is population, which is essentially supported by corrupt political systems designed to hold the status quo entrenching the wealth and power of a few. Identify just one Government in the world which genuinely is for its people? In every system the politicians in power become self serving before they serve the people, and the people are a long way down the list. Tsar Vlad the destroyer was an inevitability. Sadam tried to become him, various Ayatollahs aspire to do what he is doing, Hitler wanted to do it, I don't doubt Xi has it on his wish list. But don't kid yourself. It is neither necessary, justifiable or for the greater good. This is I suggest the opening chords of Armageddon. I dearly hope not, but i think it is. And i suggest our species has done it to itself several times over in the history of this planet. We have the potential to be better, but lust for power and wealth undo us every time.

Chomsky is getting a bit old for relevancy now. He obviously missed the point where Russia dropped communism and became a totalitarian fascist state? Seeing as Russia occupied 7% of Ukraine before the invasion started, another 13% with the loss of a good proportion of armour, aviation and manpower, doesn't seem a particularly good deal. 

The treasury will have advised this would be inflationary.  If you are a career politician with a masters in communications and some experience in a fish n chip shop on your CV, you are likely to follow that guidance.

Of course the disconnect here between economic advice and the impact of that advice is the actual death of actual people.  We have seen at least a couple of reported examples of this and rumours of many more.

If you have not been to an after hours recently (I went with my little boy a couple of weeks ago) I urge you to have a look.  Wait time in Hamilton was 11 hours.  11 hours to be seen while your boy whimpers and shivers.  I went to a less well-known facility and was seen in 5 hours.

Housing, yep that is a real problem, cost of food, ok now I am starting to get worried but not being able to see a Dr when your children are very unwell, lets just say that could be a real trigger for what would normally be calm people.

Yes and the solution they are offering is "mega government" (predictably).

While this is all very well and good, people are actually dying from this complete failure to provide our most essential government service.

Labour = benchmark bad government.