90 seconds at 9 am with BNZ

90 seconds at 9 am with BNZ: Riots break out in eastern Saudi Arabian 'Day of Rage'; Dow falls 1.6%; Spain downgraded; Chinese trade deficit; Liddell leaving as GM CFO

11th Mar 11, 8:59am by Bernard Hickey

Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including breaking news that police have fired live rounds and teargas at protestors in the Eastern Saudi Arabian city of Qatif, injuring many.

See more here at Associated Press.

Oil-watchers are focused on the risk that revolutions that have rocked Libya, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen could spread to the world's largest oil exporter.

Many are worried disaffected Shia youth in the oil-producing east of the country could revolt against the Sunni royal family's regime. The bigger risk is that Shia Iran gets involved to support those youth. Bahrain, where the US Persian Gulf fleet is based, is also in turmoil, where Shia youth are protesting. See raw riot video here.

Saudi Arabian activists have called on facebook and twitter for much wider protests later on Friday after Friday prayers. They have called for March 11 to be a 'Day of rage'. See more here at Voice of America.

The Dow fell 1.6% or more than 200 points on the news as investors worried a sharply rising oil price would stunt economic growth in America and beyond. See more here at Bloomberg.

Investors were also worried about Moody's decision to downgrade Spain's credit rating on fears its savings banks would need big bailouts. The European Sovereign Debt crisis is far from over. A key meeting will be held later this weekend on how European governments coordinate their fiscal affairs to protect the Euro. See a preview of the meeting here at Bloomberg, including news German Chancellor Angela Merkel has appeared to back down on some issues.

Also, investors were worried about a surprise trade deficit for China as exports from the economic powerhouse slowed. See more here at Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, New Zealand's highest flying executive Chris Liddell has announced he will step down as Chief Financial Officer at General Motors, but he will be replaced by another Kiwi. Daniell Ammann is currently Treasurer at GM. He graduated from Waikato University and is a former investment banker from Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. See more here at New York Times.

Reuters reported Liddell had appeared cold to others who worked with him at GM and had appeared out of place at a 'deeply American' company, allthough investors had praised his management of the GM IPO.

The New Zealand dollar weakened slightly overnight as the US dollar strengthened on the usual flight to perceived quality.

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24 Comments

by Vanderlei Luxemburgo | 11th Mar 11, 9:32am 1299789177

Mark Hotchin, a New zealand Herald reader and a solo mum are sitting at a table sharing 12 biscuits.

Hotchin takes 11 and says to the

Herald reader:

"Watch out for the solo mum,

she wants your biscuit".

by Wolly | 11th Mar 11, 9:41am 1299789681

Meanwhile who can tell us which building material will likely be the first to have prices jacked up.....has to be one of: steel.. cement ... wood ... aluminium ... plastics ... freight ... labour charge out rates ...architect fees....engineering fees....legal fees... council consent charges...... PLUS gst on top......

by scarfie | 11th Mar 11, 11:49am 1299797343

Don't you think stagflation and unemployment might get them all fighting for the scraps when GFC part II kicks in?

by speckles | 11th Mar 11, 9:45am 1299789914

I think Chris Lidell showed a lot of professionalism at GM after being passed over by the holy trinity on the Board. I wish him well and hope he finally secures the position he seeks, this was not unexpected.

by Gareth Vaughan | 11th Mar 11, 10:38am 1299793131

Anyone have anything to do with Chris Liddell when he was CEO of Carter Holt Harvey? Investors I've talked to weren't impressed with him there...

by mandk | 11th Mar 11, 9:51am 1299790279

wouldn't Hotchin first invite his companions to buy shares in the biscuits and then eat all of them himself?

by KW John | 11th Mar 11, 10:12am 1299791575

... and they were the mum's biscuits to start with.

by Neville C | 11th Mar 11, 10:18am 1299791904

Wouldn't Hotchin invite his companions to buy the biscuits, then he revalues them, borrows against them to buy 36 stale biscuits, transfers the original 12 biscuits to his 'family' trust and leaves the loans and stale biscuits for his companions.

Then ask for 2 of the stale biscuits to pay his legal bills.

by powerdownkiwi | 11th Mar 11, 10:55am 1299794159

that unrest, and the way it interacts, is still best expressed in this (from a past top 10):

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/egypts-warning-are-you-listening/525…

We've just been living off the repression of others, and they're getting pissed off.

by Gertraud T. | 11th Mar 11, 11:07am 1299794864

Unrelated - but an interesting glimpse what is going on unseen all over the world:

Spectacular cyber attack on Frances G 20 files

http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/telecom/internet/spectacular-cyber-…

by dosser | 11th Mar 11, 11:14am 1299795253

Hotchin would then repackage 35 of the 36 stale biscuits in his present wrapping room and sell them to a bunch of farmers before getting rid the one remaining stale biscuit for fair market value and using the new market level to engineer a buyback of the 35 stale biscuits.

by Andrew T | 11th Mar 11, 11:33am 1299796404

His wife would then tell the press it was nobody elses business where they got their biscuits from.....

by powerdownkiwi | 11th Mar 11, 11:41am 1299796865

and at some point they'd have to packet in.

by Snarlypuss | 11th Mar 11, 11:54am 1299797640

But not until he'd sued the grumpy new buscuit retailer for the $5 that he was promised for providing the stale produce to them.

by KW John | 11th Mar 11, 12:31pm 1299799911

The cost of which then required the biscuit retailer to 'lay-off' one of her part time employees...

by powerdownkiwi | 11th Mar 11, 1:10pm 1299802222

who had only been earning crumbs anyway

by scarfie | 11th Mar 11, 11:46am 1299797164

These guys cornered Peter Schiff for a commentary.

http://www.dailyfx.com/forex/fundamental/article/guest_commentary/2011/03/10/A_Little_Understanding_Goes_a_Long_Way.html

In other words, after dedicating his life to the study of macroeconomics, Greenspan is left with no deep understanding of how the injection of trillions of dollars of printed money affects an economy. The chicken who plays tic-tac-toe in Chinatown could likely offer the same level of critical analysis.

by Wolly | 11th Mar 11, 12:32pm 1299799954

Psssssssst.....this'll have you awake all night every night...do not read it.....!

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/03/unexpected-trade-deficit-in-china.html

by Gummy Bear Hero | 11th Mar 11, 12:45pm 1299800757

. .... Thankyou for warning me not to read something which , up until now , I didn't know existed ............. I shall take your sage advice , and move onto reading something else ...

Cheers , Wolly !

..... " The Age of Turbulence : Adventures in a New World " .....??? ....... this Alan Greenspan fellow sounds alike a derring-do sort of solo aviator ......... should be fun ............

by Wolly | 11th Mar 11, 12:42pm 1299800537

Wanna know why Bollard has missed the boat....!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8372004/EU-paralysis-drives-fresh-bond-rout.html

by Kunst | 11th Mar 11, 1:02pm 1299801727

The end of the world – move to Aussie, but stay away of snowy Kangaroos.

http://www.endofworld.net/

by Les Rudd | 11th Mar 11, 3:39pm 1299811175

Well done Raf et al:

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/new-financial-deal-proposed-christchurch-renewal-ne-88093

“The important point is that the new money goes directly into the economy and not onto the balance sheets of the banks.”

He contends an e-note injection of at least $5 billion is unlikely to be inflationary with current unemployment at close to 7%.

“Our modeling suggests $5 billion represents about $6.5 billion of new GDP, which would reduce unemployment by around three per cent and save up to $275m in interest repayments.”

“Allowing the government to go back to the failed old ways of tax increases and new debt will simply dig the country further into the economic hole that has been growing for the past 30 years or more.”

Cheers, Les.

www.mea.org.nz

by meh | 11th Mar 11, 3:48pm 1299811706

In addition use the state of emergency and demand that all the supplies of material/labour etc are provided at cost. There is no need for Fletchers and the like to make a profit from this tragedy. There are also plenty of unemployed that could be hired as labourers to assist with the rebuild. This would also keep a lid on inflation, yes/no?

Won't the money end up in the banks at some stage though once the suppliers/workers deposit it? If it repays debt it shouldn't be an issue.

by raf | 11th Mar 11, 4:49pm 1299815355

Meh,

There is a lot of slack in the labour market which can be used, especially amongst young people.

Yes the money will end up in the banks but it then circulates as money as opposed to debt. It becomes a permanent part of the money supply but has no interest attached to it.

What happened in the US is that new money was created but used to purchase securities (usually high risk ones) from the banks thus improving the balance sheets of the banks. The banks could use that to leverage up risk activities as opposed to lending to business.

This proposal goes first into the economy (new infrastructure and rebuild) so it's productive and then it hits the banks as a deposit. No debt or interest is involved.