A review of things you need to know before you sign off on Wednesday; dairy prices rise, meat exports fall, jobless rate little-changed, analyst sees an OCR rise, NAB gets new CEO, swaps up, NZD firm

Higher rates definitely have an effect however it's on lower income earners and not the affluent. The wealth transfer to asset owners from Covid will take years to unwind, if ever. The wealthy I know have never been so flush with cash and are looking to buy 3rd and 4th homes, 2 or 3 long-haul trips a year. Boats, cars etc etc.

The money printing was a good idea given it kept people in jobs and the economy afloat.

Where it failed, where all politicians fail, was in not taxing it back out of the economy again but instead allowing corporates to jack up prices which caused inflation.  



A report has just come out in Australia that confirms corporations caused the inflation by profiteering behaviour and increasing prices far beyond their actual cost increases.

Adam Smith had no problem with government issuing sovereign currency when required (as many nations did during COVID) however the flipside is that the government needs to tax it back out again to balance the books.  That NZ did not do so, was an abject failure of all economic rationale. 

I was talking with a distant relative yesterday. He mentioned that one of his grandchildren has just left her long career in the NZDF to work FIFO in WA. They have 2 kids <5 & they'd traded up at the 2021 peak (in P Nth), now their interest rates have trebled. So, home is rented for a few years until market recovers its purchase price, partner has also resigned his job to move north to stay with kids & relatives until they can setup home again together in Oz. A very stressful situation & I'm sure they're not the only people facing hard life changing decisions.

4.a Invent a solution called Cost of Living Payment. For goodness only knows what purpose.

Maybe the OCR, and interest rates, have less affect than they used to, in a world awash with debt.

2 wokes don't make a right..(I still see she commands a big part of your headspace)

Corrected. Was discussing at water cooler today. 

(I still see she commands a big part of your headspace)

Much of the country feels the same, and only until we see accountability will this ever change. 

 Manufacturers are now re-investing in ICE car development too, diverting investment away from EV development. 

Toyota has never budged from its near-to medium-term position on the viability of EVs. 

Road user charges should apply to ICE vehicles as well. That will fix the distortion with older hybrids that have virtually no battery capacity. Petrol taxes need to be removed to offset the RUC. Carbon taxes can be added to reflect the cost of burning fossil fuels. This makes the costs more in line with reality. I can then mow my lawn without paying tax for roading. 

 NZ is a mercantile nation

Not sure if that is correct. See this evidence-based gem.

 We have the 5th lowest foreign trade share of any OECD countries.  Of the four lower than us, three are large countries and the fourth (Australia) has a population five times our size.   Every single other small country has trade shares higher than New Zealand’s.  In all but Israel’s case, materially higher, and Israel is another example of a country fairly geographically remote (surrounded by plenty of other countries but not wealthy advanced economies, and wealthy advanced economies tend to trade a lot with other countries like them).

https://croakingcassandra.com/2024/02/06/once-were-a-trading-nation/

You’re right - fiddling with the market by subsidising the destruction of the planet doesn’t work. 

As a primary mode of transport, bikes are not suited to all h'holds. For an inner-city urban professional with a reasonably short commute, yes. For the battlers in the burbs with a few kids, possibly not.  

I guess they just have to deal with the range issues, charging issues, price, fire risk, durability, charging network availability and reliability and cost and they will be almost there. Currently the product is far inferior to a standard car so they have huge improvements to make to become viable.

There was (is) an argument for initial subsidies. BEV need charging. Without charging points no BEV; without BEV no charging points. So it is sensible to spend taxpayers money to get the market started and then wait and see.  An alternative to subsidies would be to get Auckland Council and AT to migrate rapidly to BEV starting with all their company cars.

Let market decide. My guess is solar will become far cheaper such that power is almost free but you pay to connect. Then BEVs would make sense again. BUT my guess or the politicians guess or tossing a coin makes little difference.

Much better than the smell of your EV burning.

You sound like Tommy Parker, the chap from NZTA that went on to head up Auckland's Light Rail 

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/02/ribbon-cut-on-wellin…

No. We don’t have to reduce our emissions either. 

No need to raise emissions tax. The price on carbon will rise as the number of emissions permitted by the cap and trade scheme reduces. This will increase the price of petrol.

The scheme does the entire job of lowering emissions, anything else is the government picking winners, often inefficiently.

I’d say most cars are significantly depreciated after 10 years. I’d pay $10k for a 10 year old Tesla in good condition, that’s probably all an ICE would be worth too. Unless the battery is completely poked they would be good second cars for shorter trips. 

People on here asking why EVs depreciate. It’s as if none of you have owned a car before.

Yes new EVs have had a big drop in new cars and that’s hit used cars. Good. That means that we are getting better at making them. I hope they drop more.

Different chemistry. You can’t compare. 10 year old Leafs are worth a nice packet still. Sort yourself out, you look like an idiot.

Yes but the data is flawed, see stats statement.

They had the leaky building product scam before we did. Didn't stop us buying it hook line and sinker.