90 seconds at 9 am with BNZ; yuan rises; Queensland floods; unemployment; AAA sovereigns

"While the (2011 @ 4.55 metres) flood isn't the largest in Brisbane's history (that title goes to the flood of 1841 with 8.43 metres), it came at a delicate time for the state and the country. In the wake of the gold rush of the 1850s, Australia enjoyed an economic boom focussed largely by property investment that began to unravel towards the end of the 1880s. Burdened by speculative property loans gone awry, the Melbourne-based Federal Bank collapsed, which sparked a fully fledged banking crisis that claimed more than 10 Australian banks within a few months."

This all sounds spookily familiar!

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/THE-DAILY-CHART-A-bit-of-Brisbane-River-history-pd20110113-D2V3B?OpenDocument

If I was a younger man I'd head for Japan

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8257400/Third-of-y…

I can never understand why Government Debt is always being highlighted and not Private Debt.  Poor Ireland did not have a large Government Debt until it took over the Banks' Private Debt.  New Zealand has not got a serious Government Debt problem but our  Private Debt is horrific.  Now if our Government took over the big fours Banks' Private Debt as it guaranteed in 2008, and which is still on the books, we would be in serious trouble.  And then everybody would talk about how bad the Government Debt was rather than having discussed NOW if a Government should ever take over Private Debt. 

Clearing one's debts and saving money is apparently such an incredible feat that it's worthy of an article on CNN.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/14/pf/anna_newell_jones/index.htm?hpt=C2

Let us give thanks to the drug companies for the fast and cheap painkillers which mean my toofake is like the NZ economy, enough to keep me unbalanced and destined to lead to some serious money problems...for me...and a new Bentley for someone else.

We are in a recession. Forget about the survey BS. It will be very long thanks to the decision to protect the property bubbles to ensure the credit pushers remain in control and the stoopid people carry on with their debt filled lives to their graves.

Export bonanzas bringing wealth and jobs to all...total crap but the message goes down a treat and means real policy action never takes place. Right now the bulk of the commodity boom is being caused by Bernanke printing to death the US dollar with speculation in the market by the very banks and mates who get to gorge themselves on his new 'money'. There is a small increase in demand from consumers for commodities but not enough to warrant the explosion in prices.

In Europe civil unrest is evolving into the promise of a spring and summer of riots, burning and killing. Meanwhile the end of the euro is close and the insiders are planning their escape route for their wealth.

Here in NZ English is hell bent on boosting the govt debt to the cliff edge. He and this govt will not be the ones paying off the debt, if it is ever paid off. Just as a wad of fools are trapped owing 180 billion in household debt...a burden they can never pay off...so the country will join them. The banks are happy farming the families and ruralites and the foreign savers will be happy farming NZ for ever and ever.

Oz, here we come!

My two brothers, and two nephews (all of us builders and an apprentice) are off to Australia next week to help with the rebuild. The pay is almost 250% what I'm on now. Bye bye NZ, and if I return it will only be to pack up the rest of my stuff.

(Patriotism is for poor people.)

US housing market has 50% fall to go...?......yikes.... http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article25597.html

That article below is well worth a read...it removes a few cobwebs..or are they conwebs....and what of the seriously unaffordable housing in NZ...the Elephant squashing the families...eating most of the wealth...and leaving massive piles of dung behind for others to take a lifetime to clean up !

Patricia, can you explain more about guarantee in 2008? ta

The irony is that as a shortage of skilled labour emerges in NZ so up goes the remuneration

Give me a Kiwi worker any day.  Also, have a mate who has gone to Australia and developed a transport business- has fleet of 48 trucks.  He is fed up with work-shy Aussies and makes a point of employing Kiwis . 

 "EASTERN psychics, astrologers and palm readers are reporting a huge surge in demand from a new class of customer high powered professionals who want advice on how to survive the credit crunch."?google aussie news.

Not a minute to be wasted. Grab the crystal ball and be a psychic winner...no regulations here...you're just putting people in touch with their ancestors who will guide their relatives through the shite to greater wealth...and collecting the donations to your Church of the Crystals Balls...tax free of course.

Who would dare not make a hefty donation when the ancestors suggest it.

"As a result of the Harris report, the Government has a bill before Parliament to better regulate trustees and bring them under the supervision of the new Financial Markets Authority (FMA).

It would be imprudent to write of a cosy relationship between the trustees and their finance companies, so I will quote from the submission of Perpetual to the select committee for the new legislation:

"The current system fosters close working relationships between trustees and issuers, and allows small issues that arise to be dealt with discreetly before they develop into large problems.

"Those close working relationships between trustees and issuers do not present a 'problem' (sic) that the bill should seek to address."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10699937

It remains to be seen whether the govt has the guts to protect investors against trustees...!