US jobless benefit claims rise; US manufacturers destocking; China boosts strategic reserves; Indonesia stumbles; UST 10y at 0.69%; oil down and gold up; NZ$1 = 66.7 USc; TWI-5 = 69.7

I am always surprised that the economy was allowed to go down this speculative hole, in fact it's been encouraged. I have heard of families around here paying 1k a week for a 4 bedroom house and having to live like peasants to pay the bills. The new poor are these people, life is tough for those without family support and dependants.

I do often wonder where this ends , when will the music stop and what will the economy look when it does?
In the States the Democrats turned their backs on the working people, Trump has steered the republicans to pick up these voters and today the republican party is the workers party, the party of middle America. I'm not sure who represents the workers in NZ, our main parties claim to, but it all looks like pretence to me.

Wager there is much hubris at large here. It might well be that the congregation has been controlled, or perhaps even made reliant, by the hierarchy. And that hierarchy has been absolutely unwilling to cede any control in any regard to anyone else.

Murray I've got a document in my possession that is a rough recipe for longevity. It came about from a PhD thesis and I twice had the pleasure to sit in front of the elderly author giving lectures on the Gold Coast. At the top of the page there are four categories, the rest of the page mainly deals with the first category. Those four categories, Nutrition, Exercise, Spirituality, Meditation.

The work to get to that point was studying the small grouples of long lived peoples all around the world. He wanted to find common factors, and he did. I obtained this document in the early 90's, the work had been done a well before that time as the guy was 72 and still surfing everyday in Byron Bay. To quality for the study subjects had to be over 85, be fully mobile, have full eyesight and hearing, be free of degenerative disease, be sexually active, and a bit more but you get the picture I hope. His oldest couple were 110/111.

I noted your comment the other day about not recovering fully from a flu a couple of years ago. Also comments that you keep fit. There are four legs that hold up the table that is health and vitality that leads to disease free living. It seems to me that because you have done one well, the exercise one, you think your table is on a firm foundation. From where I sit it doesn't look very stable at all, so you are right to be worried.

Healty people don't get Covid, an if they do won't be getting the longer term side effects you talk about. There is abundant evidence of that, however bias blinds people to the data. The answer to health lies within mate, not with someone else. As a bit of a hint the diet side is largely vegan and organic. You'll find it free of wheat also. It is about the choices you make, stop trying to make this about choices other people make. For a start you won't win, people will do what they are going to do.

I can't see any sort of building block technology being able to be manufactured here (eg. chips, internals). Many of the things we import are categorically out of reach for local production purely because we lack the skills required to make them. We don't even have the skills locally to drive a combine harvester which looks about as complex as some of the video games my kids play https://youtu.be/KwQKKaZzrK4?t=87. Unfortunately, if you want a picture of what NZ looks like in 20 years time without a drastic deviation from the status quo - look at South America and pick a country.

All easier said than done ... for most primary industry labour isnt the big cost... ie
- fixed cost component ... take Milk / cheese... something has to service the baked in debt on the irrigators/tractors , pay the rates, fuel, freight ...
- production is geared to economies to scale ... not local .. thats the only way to pay off all that big machinery

They will have a plan, they aren't under enough voteing pressure from National to hand it out.

It's about how individuals, h'holds, and SMEs are the backbone of the economy and how their actions and behavior have been driven pre-Covid and the situation they find themselves in. The aggregate of 'small stuff' and how that paints the big picture. NZers don't really think about this stuff (that's for other people) but it's all come to a head now. Personally I don't really see how our resources all locked in housing make the situation good for anyone (important to remember that those resources are also some kind of fiction in terms of savings).

Understanding all this may not help a FHB, but that's beside the point. That person's destiny is now being shaped by what has happened in the past 20-30 years. That's completely out of their hands unfortunately.

example for a FHB, I am on outskirts of CHC, great little house has just come up 3 beds 1 bath two living older Kitchen but adequate..410k..Log burner great wee entry level house...the sort house I started off with as a FHB. If you think your job is secure with low interest rates go for it. BUT just 100 meters away, brand new subdivision..new houses..4 Bdr 2 bath, 3 living..average price 700K ..for a FHB..no way, unless you have at least 20% deposit and really secure job. But again individual choice.

Keep their hands in their pockets ! There is no fun, in catching falling knives.

that's it, the economy is ruined. Hospo would be running so much better if we learned to live with covid by staying home and not socialising.