Here's our summary of key economic events overnight that affect New Zealand with news escalation in the Middle East is rising as the US is increasingly desperate to extract itself. Through all this it is adding more troops as Iran widens its attacks. It looks grim.
But first up today we should note that the overnight dairy Pulse auction delivered slightly lower prices across the four commodities offered, all down about -3% in USD, marginally less in NZD.
In the US, while everything else is in flux, there is widening concern about private credit 'cockroaches'. We first noted the issues with Blue Owl funds. But it seems many more of these opaque funds have severe valuation issues. Funds managed by some very big names have been limiting withdrawals and investors clamour to exit their exposure. A list of troublesome funds include those managed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Blackrock, Apollo, Ares, and Blackstone. There are others of course. Limiting or stopping redemptions on funds that have dodgy valuations is a terrible signal.
Staying in the US, the weekly ADP pulse data delivered little-change from the prior week, a minimal +10,000 job increase.
The Richmond Fed's regional factory survey reported an improvement in their region in March, built on better order levels, an easier ability to pass on price increases, and a lower cost pressure. Despite all that, things are still net-negative. However their services survey is no longer negative (although it isn't positive either).
In Canada, small business sentiment took a hit in March, but it is still net-positive
There were many early March PMIs out overnight and the one for the US was weaker with weakened output growth and sharply higher prices following the outbreak of war in the Middle East. This survey is now at an eleven month low.
In Europe, this same survey shows Eurozone output growth slowed as input cost inflation hits its highest level for over three years.
India is reporting higher inflation and lower growth. Japan is reporting a slowdown in March too. And Australia reported a sudden contraction, their first in 18 months. In all PMIs released so far, the factory sectors are seeing less negative impact than the services sectors, where the effects are more immediate.
Taiwan reported a more 'modest' (for them) increase in industrial production in February, up +18% from a year ago. They also said their retail sales jumped an outsized +7.7% in February from a year ago, ending a long run of modest improvements.
We should note that the sharp restriction on sulphur exports from the Middle East is really juicing up the price of this commodity essential for phosphate fertiliser production, competing with mining demand for the remaining limited supply. Sulphur prices are now +40% higher than at the start of 2026 and +27% higher than the pandemic peak which was the prior record high.
The UST 10yr yield is now just on 4.41%, up +7 bps from yesterday at this time. The key 2-10 yield curve is little-changed at +48 bps (-1 bp). Their 1-5 curve is steeper at +23 bps (+3 bps) and the 3 mth-10yr curve is now at +70 bps (+2 bps). The China 10 year bond rate is down -1 bp at 1.83%. The Japanese 10 year bond yield is down -3 bps at 2.27%. The Australian 10 year bond yield starts today at 5.03%, down -2 bps from yesterday. And the NZ Government 10 year bond rate starts today at 4.86%, down -4 bps.
Wall Street marking time on the S&P500 with down -0.3% in volatile trade. Overnight, European equity markets were mixed between London's +0.7% dip and Frankfurt's -0.1% dip. Yesterday however, Tokyo rose +1.4%. Hong Kong was up +2.8%, and Shanghai rose +1.8%. Singapore was up +0.4%. The ASX200 gained a minor +0.2%. But the NZX50 fell a sharp -1.5%.
The price of gold will start today up +US$38 from yesterday at US$4424/oz. Silver is actually up +50 USc at US$69.50/oz.
American oil prices are up +US$3 at just on US$92.50/bbl, while the international Brent price is now just on US$104/bbl. And it will be no surprise to learn that jet fuel prices are leaping, globally.
The Kiwi dollar is softer against the USD from yesterday, down -30 bps at 58.2 USc. Against the Aussie we are unchanged at 83.5 AUc. We are down -40 bps against the yen. Against the euro we are -30 bps lower at just under 50.2 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today down -30 bps at just on 61.9.
The bitcoin price starts today at US$69,569 and down -1.4% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been modest at just over +/- 1.5%.
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73 Comments
If only we had retained our domestic oil and gas industry for elemental sulphur production and process heat rather than virtue signalling to the UN.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/590484/mccain-to-close-hastings-veg…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/589279/heinz-wattie-s-proposes-clos…
It was a temporary extraction.
I'd have said that 'retained' implies a more permanent arrangement.
We have to build whatever systems we will be using, post fossil energy. We have to do that build, with the remaining energy.
Using the remaining energy to perpetuate the existing - and temporary - arrangement, is invalid logic.
When at first, we closed the oil refinery, we were certain that the market was correct, we didn’t need to think.
Next the food security, frozen foods, of course no Government should interfere with the market, it’s “perfect “ isn’t it?
Earlier we recognised our inability to fund the infrastructure needed for water, and there was a large French company who can continue to take this problem from local government. No downside?
Energy, food, water. I am underwhelmed by the neoliberal patter. Collectively we need to change our mental model. And call out the unacceptable.
It is simply nuts to destroy our frozen food system.
NZers have chosen cheaper foreign frozen foods (not me personally I don't trust it).
Should we force them to eat locally produced at a higher cost? You wouldn't complain about our high food costs? And should that apply to other products too?
"NZers have chosen cheaper foreign frozen foods"
Not sure how accurate that statement is. The choice is being removed for reasons of return, the (offshore) owners anticipate a greater return from exiting. ...that is not to say a domestic business may not be profitable, especially when you consider what has recently happened around shipping costs.
I attempted to calculate a rough shipping cost for frozen vege shipped from europe to NZ and came back with a rough figure of 50 cents per kg pkt....that is a product that retails for less than $4....on pre Iran shipping costs. Asian freight costs could be expected to be less but that is indicative that there are other factors at play nevermind the downstream effects and loss of capacity/capability.
I traced a can of beans - Heinz/Wattie as I recall - for an article back about 2009/10.
FSA (in those days, is it MPI now?) were helpfulness itself, as were H/W.
Until I penetrated offshore - to China as it happens. All of a sudden, the helpfulness vanished. No knowledge, no process, no control.
That's the result of demanding low price - you get what you (don't) pay for. Yes, you can buy quality, local and guaranteed BUT YOU MUST HAVE THE DISCRETIONARY INCOME. Have a look round any Farmer's Market - it isn't the bottom end shopping there.
That experience is why we went all-out to be self-sufficient - and then some - in veg, fruit and berries. At least we know what we're eating.
I traced a can of beans - Heinz/Wattie as I recall - for an article back about 2009/10.
Nice one Power. Cashew nuts are transported from Africa to Vietnam for processing before being packaged and shipped to Europe, US, Aussie, Aotearoa for white people to enjoy.
Government arbitrarily imposes carbon taxes and gas exploration bans and the market adjusts accordingly. Yes, it is nuts to destroy our food system just to get some feelz at the UN.
It's your corporatocracy destroying food production, and Earths life support systems in general.
Is the earth life support system destroying corporatocracy in the room with you now?
Standard spin.
Cherry-picking.
Wrong too - it's everywhere.
Even Rupert Murdoch is melting.
https://www.foxweather.com/weather-news/heat-wave-smashes-records-acros…
Yip as I've been banging on here for the past while, all we've done for 3 decades is import cheap stuff from abroad using cheaper labour input costs, destroy our local trades/manufacturing and production bases/companies, so that we get lower CPI reads, so we can lower interest rates, so that mortgage rates drop, so that retail banks can lend even more against the housing market.
So we've swapped jobs/businesses/productivity for expensive houses - which to me, is a completely self sabotaging way of running an economy.
We should be protecting our domestic jobs/businesses/productivity over lower rates and higher house prices - but for decades we have done the opposite of that.
Neoliberal globalisation and freemarket thinking in this respect, seems like a good idea - much as the same as communism does. Both have good intentions, but in my opinion both seem to (and in the west the past few decades) have backfired and only made things worse.
Ask yourself - were young people starting off in the workforce and wanting to by a house and have a family better off in this country in the 1980's or now - after we've offshored many of the jobs and pushed house prices to 7,8,9,10x incomes?
But part of the reason NZ houses are so expensive is because they're made in NZ using Kiwi labour.
So what the figures are telling you is life's only affordable if you have an army of minions doing the work for dollars and hour.
Yes it is cheap foreign labour that allowed CPI reading to be low, which allowed the central band to send rates lower and lower, decade by decade, and allowed so much debt to be extended against the housing market >100% of GDP, which is why prices are so expensive.
Imagine what would have happened if housing/land costs (as you say expensive because we use NZ labour in their production) were included in the CPI? Do you think interest rates would have been as low as they were?
If housing was going up at 7% p.a. for decades (ie doubling every year) and was a significant component of a persons expense (measured in CPI), then interest rates wouldn't have been at 5%, they would have been much much higher, thus preventing these significant price level increases we have seen in land and housing costs. Instead we allowed them to balloon out of control - and actually celebrated like house prices going up at 2-3 times the 2% target of CPI was a good thing!! It wasn't - it was short term stupidity (in my opinion) and comes with a cost (which we are going to continue to pay).
Hence why 10 years ago I was almost certain that housing was in a bubble in real terms - that was most probably going to pop at some point.
Wasn't there a brimstone mine on White Island?
Aren't these closures a result of commercial decisions by your much loved corporatocracy? The Supermarket cartel scouring the world for dodgy product so they can add a cent of margin? Customers looking for a couple of cents off a generic can of peaches, that ultimately reduces their childrens economic possibilities and puts them on a plane to the greener grass of WA mines?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360955255/ghosted-rejected-depressing-2…
very sad time for young grads
A video-game artist?
Why?
Yes, the Universities are to blame. The staff/management all wanted to keep 'earning' (spending) at their current levels. That, increasingly, has forced a relentless increase in student and societal debt. In other words, the Professors are spending today, at the expense of the kids tomorrow - cleaning out the resource-shelves for themselves, now.
So the students have a case for being pi--ed.
But video-games? How about something productive?
Some very wealthy kiwis post sale of their video game businesses. Start your own idea and back your talent vs demanding a fat cushion from others.
Or do something else. Agree taking on debt to study something niche is a risk on day one.
You're looking at it the wrong way (but the common way - the majority fall for money-as-a-store-of-wealth.
The debt they're taking on, is the now-Professor's debt. Not their own. They are 'funding' the Professors, so the latter can buy the best of what's left of the planet, NOW. So logically, it should be the Professor's debt.
In resource - including extracted energy resource - terms, no single generation should reduce the opportunities of a future one, and there are many potential future ones to only one 'now' generation. Debt - even in hard-currency form, something most people don't get their heads around - is a proxy for future resources and energy. If there's ever-more debt chasing ever-less real stuff, increasing numbers of debt-holders are going to miss out, increasingly per time.
Wealthy to most people means holding proxy - but it isn't. In resource/energy terms, a Robbie Wiliams concert is a dead loss. Fun and entertaining sure - I've been to a few concerts in my time - but a net loss FOR EVERYONE (just less for those who got relatively-more proxy out of the churn).
Robbie may be a loss, but I'll be grateful for more international concerts in the south island vs just Auckland-only shows. Far too spenny to be flying up there, food, accommodation, drinks, transport, time. Roll on Christchurch!
Software is pretty up there productivity wise.
Perfect storm for tertiary ed. Years of increasing grad numbers has lowered the value of a degree, whilst it's become increasingly more expensive to attain.
Oh and the grads we did make, weren't aligned with the skills demands of our economy.
There we differ.
I call it parasitic (non-essential) facilitation.
Ask 'facilitation of what?' and the only possible answer is: The rate of consumption (which fits with the blindly-stupid holy grail that is GDP).
So a hastener of its own demise.
Yet here you are using software to comment on a website. Parasite...
Nope - I'm not gaining proxy by doing so, I'm running a 14 year-old computer on 300 watts of solar, in between doing the chores. Many of which involve personal energy-harvesting and food-production.
And if I'm making people think about degrowth, I'm actually contributing in the long term; making the glide-path flatter. But yes, I regard the site as parasitic, in those terms; DC will fully expect to exchange his proxy in a supermarket, for real food.
The computer was made with non-renewable resources and energy, as were the solar panels.
Your internet connection is maintained by "parasites" with computers and software, and maintaining the wires and hardware requires energy. The fact you don't live in a city means your internet connection requires a lot more energy to build and maintain than mine does.
You are using a website maintained by "parasites" with computers and software, and it requires energy to run the data centre that hosts it.
So by using the internet you are wasting energy, resources, and supporting "parasites".
Haha.
Actually, city living is MORE energy/resource-demanding. By far.
But you misunderstand parasitic.
Energy, money and growth: The future is not the past | interest.co.nz
First graph - note the two arrows going into the box and the two exiting it. I mean parasitic on those who are part of those flows. I harvest energy, that harvesting is part of the left-hand in-arrow. So I'm contributing something - and if push comes to shove, I can self-sustain for a long, long time.
Private credit suspending withdrawal left and right. Their investments are found to be near worthless or worthless. Dare I say i these investments sound like speculative rubbish.
How far will this genius spread?
Lots of chickens coming home to roost thanks to Mr Trump. This roller coaster ride is far from over.
The Orange Swan event.
Until they run out of cockroaches?
Its several times bigger then sub prime by the way
Aye - but he facilitated; didn't cause. It would have happened inevitably and perhaps by a flatter-glide landing, perhaps steeper.
The interesting move is China - talking about talking. Iran will survive this, as will China as will Russia (their record drone flock this morning was a concurrent message). Which means the petro-dollar - in it's present omnipotent form at least - won't.
With implications for all knock-on adherents; KiwiSaver, for instance.
Facilitated? Maybe, I was thinking accelerator.
Long way to go before it will be definitive, but in the short term Iran will survive. If they persist in pissing off their neighbours though, that might change down the track.
The neighbours they are pissing off, are the puppet/crony leaderships.
What the rank-and-file civilians below those think is probably another story - more like: F... the West, colonialising capitalist c...s.
If the latter overwhelm the former - Arab-Spring style?
But maybe energy-blindness is endemic there too, and their young just want to consume at recent western rates? That way the current leadership is on shaky ground too ('if you don't want to vanish with a boot up the bum, gotta give the population something to hum' - went the song). Ex FF extraction, the Dubai's of this world are stranded assets.
What the rank-and-file civilians below those think is probably another story - more like: F... the West, colonialising capitalist c...s.
The rate at which developing/3rd world populations want to adopt Western lifestyles would suggest otherwise.
There are some very nice comforts in our western lifestyle that, over time have assumed the status of necessities.
When looking at developing nations adoption of western comforts, i suggest that is largely driven by western capitalism, constantly pursuing growth. And if "development" continues unabated, those nations will find themselves in the same situation western nations are in now - compromised domestic resilience, massive waste generation, increased marginalisation within the population. Not a particularly appetising prognosis. But hey, those western interests will continue extracting profit regardless.
I'm reminded of an interview with a cosmetics executive I heard on RNZ a long time ago, along the lines of "If only we could convince eastern/Asian people that body odour is bad, then we could expand sales exponentially".
When looking at developing nations adoption of western comforts, i suggest that is largely driven by western capitalism, constantly pursuing growth
As a bit of an example against that, I'll use Bhutan.
Little Kingdom in the Himalayas, they were relatively cut off from the world for quite some time. Rather than measure GDP, they have GNP (gross national happiness). It's fairly uncommercialised, not much in the way of advertising. Everyone gets electricity, water, internet, foods cheap, etc. extremely deep cultural roots.
Sounds idyllic, but the youth leave for India in droves to chase that consumer western lifestyle, without much indoctrination. The same mindset has caused billions to leave their agrarian roots for cities.
"If only we could convince eastern/Asian people that body odour is bad, then we could expand sales exponentially"
Ah the old create the need then sell the solution
Agreed, PDK.
As you say, more bad news overnight - Trump and Israel just struck Iran's power grid, and now Tehran is hitting Gulf energy sites in a massive escalation, just as they warned they would.
Paraphrased from Patrick Henningsen at ~16:50...
"Trump and his admin all lie bald-faced to the American and global public. They lie to other world leaders and say, oh we didn't know about that - it's a shame that happened, we will have a word with BB.
Meanwhile, we are careering towards WW3. I think at some point the press has to pull their finger out and stop entertaining this vaudeville act, because it's not going to be a good result for anybody."
I don't place much credibility (any) on these YT talking heads. Nothing they say is referenced to any third party information.
Iran has said it would target desalination plants if the US went after electricity infrastructure. I doubt the US is stupid enough to have it's allied Gulf states die of dehydration within a week!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/23/iran-threat-to-destroy-wa…
I don't place much credibility (any) on these YT talking heads
The most objective ones tend to be far less definitive about what's going to happen and how.
The worst ones are who you can guess what they're going to say about any particular subject before they say it.
PM, If you consider The Guardian as alt-news, then you might like to buy some of my ocean-front blue-chip RE in Arizona - sight unseen, of course.
They are nothing more than alt-news in drag, and notorious for serving up stories devoid of citations that support the status quo Western neocon narratives. Your comment sounds like a classic case of projection to me.
BTW, it should be clear, to anyone who doesn't reside under a rock, that TOOFOO and his despotic sycophants are plenty stupid enough to do anything, as long as it fits their psychopathic/narcissistic version of reality... oh... and, that's right, and lines their billionaire-club pockets at the same time
If truth is what we seek, then moving away from a mainstream news source, or university derived theory of piece of information becomes incredibly problematic.
Someone could "study" something for 10s of thousands of hours, or publish endless articles or blogs, but without much in the way of peer review or oversight, they could be gravitating even further from truth.
I will break my own rule... again... (i.e. in not engaging with patent stupidity - Mark Twain's sage advice), simply because of the sheer unfathomable idiocy of this sentence...
"If truth is what we seek, then moving away from a mainstream news source, or university derived theory of piece of information becomes incredibly problematic."
Without any shadow of a doubt, this is THE most tragically idiotic statement I have ever read on this site. And to think that it even managed a like.
YCHMTSU (not Japanese)
How would you ever be able to determine the efficacy of random claims that have little to no verification method other than by the self.
Presumably you don't have much issue with peer review when it comes to hard sciences.
That's definitely not Japanese (can speak Japanese and it can't spell a word like that).
Your first sentence is such a jumbled word salad of assumptions and projection that I won't even bother to respond.
And the second one...?...Well, yes, I do take issue with the 21st-century version of "peer reviews".
It was repeatedly shown during the Covid plandemic that many of these so-called peer reviews are a complete crock.
In this instance, most of the premier medical journals were caught red-handed conducting paid reviews. IOW, they were blatantly shilling for big-pharma, one of the wealthiest and highest paying corporate lobbies on the planet.
YCHMTSU = You Could Hardly Make This Shit Up
Your first sentence is such a jumbled word salad of assumptions and projection that I won't even bother to respond.
But you just did. It's a pretty straightforward concept though, without any form of external verification, there's very little way to determine if what one is claiming has any validity.
Well, yes, I do take issue with the 21st-century version of "peer reviews".
You have issue with any form of evaluation that isn't blind agreement to your claims.
YCHMTSU = You Could Hardly Make This Shit Up
Ah. All the best communicators use obscure acronyms.
"despotic sycophants are plenty stupid"
These people aren't stupid. You don't get that sort of power, wealth and privledge by being stupid. They might be deficient in all sorts of characteristics humans like to imagine makes us special, but stupidity isn't one of them.
"If you consider The Guardian as alt-news"
What does that mean? I regard The Guardian as a left leaning mainstream news outlet whose articles are generally well reseached and their sources clearly referenced. They are not the only outlet to have publicised the Iranian threat to critical Gulf state infrastructure.
Are these talking heads you reference what you consider a definative source of information? At best they are opinion pieces without any particular basis in fact but drowning in personal biases. What's next? Tucker Carson? Alex Jones
Meanwhile as Trump announces 'negotiations', the grift continues
A scandal that in saner times would have ended careers, and even administrations. Now it won't even be investigated.
An interesting perspective on Slate Money last weekend (or the week before?). Credit should be dramatically lower risk than equity - the creditors normally get paid out while the equity can be completely wiped out.
So why is there a problem with private credit and no noise about private equity?
How much higher can the 10yr-UST rise before it all implodes ? I would think that 5% is the ceiling.
For sale: 25kg elemental Sulphur. Willing to trade for physical gold or Diesel.
Wanted to swap
30,000,000k of digital proxy (held on brand-new data-stick)
for a can of beans
Must be within one day's walk of....
Its a good comment. Same with fiat, shares, gold, diamonds, etc.
However I suspect if they are desperate they'll just come and take it regardless.
:)
A can of beans will only get you so far and remember you have to expend the energy before you get the beans ;-)
Poor trade, the beans would not have the energy to replace that spent in the two way walk a day and back. Better to stay put and spend more energy tending the garden or seeking edible vegitation.
Neoliberal ideology in it's death throes, destroying the last vestiges of NZ food security?
US butter on our shelves I heard last night. McCaines on Hastings that started life as a local farmer cooperative processor - Grower Food closing frozen.
To me it is imperative that Government carry out an urgent review of factors affecting viability of key processing industries in NZ.
The review needs to examine:
1 electricity costs faced by NZ processors and whether gentailers have greedily driven those costs. And in the process looked to free up consumption in processing to save on generation expansion and/or make electricity available to electricity dense data centres enriching off shore corporations.
2 how level the playing field really is for food production costs on farm, between NZ and the other production countries, NZ imports product from.
In the OECD, NZ ranks in the lowest for agricultural production support equivalent and has held that ranking since the virtual elimination of farm subsidies in the 1980s.
Enough is enough. NZ, I argue, needs to impose a taxation and tariff regime to redress the competitive disadvantage imposed on domestic production through state subsidies on production of product in countries exporting to NZ. And the capacity for transnational corporations to apply transfer pricing regimes to avoid tax liability within the NZ jurisdiction.
Agreed Lou. But as others have commented, capitalist ideology is driving this. There are far larger strategic implications, not just around food security, but employment, social cohesion, health communities.
But none of the respective political parties are expressing anything along these lines, which essentially means they don't get it. A local buyer should step up and make a low bid offer for it all, and continue it but taking it back to it's roots as locally owned, supporting local producers and buyers. The government could play a role to support a local buyer through a tax plan. The foreign owners should not get that support to keep it open.
Absolutely agree about the wider destruction resulting from Heinz and McCains decision.
I chose to try and focus on the imbalance embedded within competitiveness that is essentially enabled by NZ Government refusing to examine and reduce the impact of structural subsidy regimes, on NZ non-subsidised (or very limited subsidisation resulting from the likes of Government investment in R&D and the likes of soil conservation subsidies via Regional Councils) production.
That some commentators suggest that production regimes rely on much cheaper labour costs is hollow because that doesn't recognise the subsidy regimes that support continuance in those countries, nor the very different, lower, less expensive, environmental, animal welfare, and processing hygiene standards applied in those countries exporting to NZ.
Which, when I think about it, also brings into question whether the NZ food safety and animal welfare regulations that impose additionally higher comparitive costs on domestic production and processing have really got out of hand.
Just one isolated example being farmer requirements to gain approval/accreditation from a vet to administer some restricted interventions now shifting from annually to 6 monthly. Yes, use of antibiotics in food production needs to be controlled. Yet administration of animal remedies is a fundamental skill for a farmer. One only renews one's driver licence every 10 years, generally, but a farmer is required to validate their competence to apply animal remedies 6 monthly. Go figure.
Which, when I think about it, also brings into question whether the NZ food safety and animal welfare regulations that impose additionally higher comparitive costs on domestic production and processing have really got out of hand.
Yeah but don't we feel safer and better morally?
I don't.
P****s me off when my daughter in law does me a throws out my packs of assorted herbs because they are past their best before dates.
And on that, best before dates are an arbitrary decision because the law says the producer must include on on packaging. Apparently 'forever' is not acceptable under that law. A construct to increase sales (not consumption if half gets chucked out).
Don't worry they probably only have one heart star so were really bad for you anyway.
Which, when I think about it, also brings into question whether the NZ food safety and animal welfare regulations that impose additionally higher comparitive costs on domestic production and processing have really got out of hand.
We saw this with the pork industry when Sow crates were outlawed in the name of animal welfare. Demand never dipped but production was cut significantly as pork farmers pivoted to other income streams form their land due to higher cost and greater loss of piglets.
Result? Same quantity consumed in NZ but more pig carcasses imported from all over like Poland, Lithuania, South America. It is ultimately hypocritical for such large decisions to be made in the name of animal welfare when in the same breath wasting more and more on imports when we already had a reasonable percentage of domestic production.
The pointy headed experts in neoliberalism have chosen about half a dozen NZ products they believe NZ has a natural advantage growing. The rest can be tossed to the dogs. A slab of pork from a factory pig farm in Asia is the same as the regulated farm pork in NZ, ethics and environment aside.
As to electricity costs? The first step would be to stop increasing demand building nonsense like "Data centres". When the broccoli stops arriving from Thailand along with carrots from Peru, ideoogy and megabits stored in cyberspace won't seem so important.
Leveling playing field? Pay $1/hr like the competition?
Pretty bang on. Financially it makes more sense for NZ to deal in a handful of agricultural products, done on scale.
Most of the population operates the same way, their jobs are in some sort of specialized vocation instead of being a generalist doing dozens of small varied tasks.
Good conversation.
And agreed.
The problem is - this arrangement (this specialisation) was temporary. We have seen the accelerating need to re-train (once unthinkable) and maybe multiple times. The problem is that the skill-sets need in the future will include being able to think/adapt on the fly. Some of us - offshore sailing is good training here - have learned to do that as a way of life. Most haven't.
Some fields become redundant and replaced.
Some fields undergo constant improvement.
Some don't change that much over the decades and centuries.
Doesn't detract from the reality that a larger market with more actors allows for specialization, and that's often more productive collectively and individually. Has been going on since before the internal combustion engine. It's allowed the foundation of the science that you come to rely on.
Sort of agree. But in the construction industry, for example, my perception is that it has lead to fiefdoms - roofing, gibbing, framing, foundations. Adding cost.
Yes, you cannot 'go back' knowledge-wise - although you can forget during times of crisis.
And not recover.
But specialisation is the child of surplus energy. As such, it must peak and ebb.
Uhhh, it's the child of larger groups forming, so not everyone needs to be a farmer
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