Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news that stress results from Ireland's banks show they need another 24 billion euros of capital survive.
This brings total bank bailouts in Ireland by Irish taxpayers to 70 billion euros or 17,000 euros per capita. See more at BBC.
The European and British banks that have lent money to the Irish banks through junior and senior bond issues are now worried that the state-controlled banks will force them to take haircuts or losses on those bond issues. Irish politicians have begun talking about the need for restructuring or default on this debt.
That would cause more turmoil in European financial markets and effectively make it more difficult and expensive for New Zealand's banks and government to roll over their foreign debts. Those higher costs would be passed on to New Zealanders in the form of higher mortgage rates than would otherwise be the case.
Elsewhere in Europe, Portugal revealed its government borrowing had hit 8.6% of GDP, much higher than its official target of 7.3%. See more here at BBC.
Portugese bond yields hit record highs on talk of a bailout now Portugal has a caretaker government and has run out of cash to make interest payments due in June.
Meanwhile, back in New Zealand, Terry Serepisos' holiday home in Queenstown has been put up for sale as a mortgagee sale and he faces a bankruptcy petition.
Serepisos is confident of a loan to pay off his creditors from a shadowy figure in Dubai. See more here at Stuff.
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24 Comments
Is this the turning point of our economic misery ?
Great news ! PM John Key and the prince of Saudi Arabia Bandar Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz are signing a contract today for an oil pipeline to New Zealand in exchange of a fresh water pipeline from, the Westcoast of the South Island with a turn off to Australia also.
A great digging success for Brownlee too – remember !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7XeZx-Zg-M - and that is not the 1st of April - but reality !
Don't get sidetracked by the argument on lightbulbs Walter, it is a red herring. Not only are they toxic, but anectodal evidence I have seen shows they won't ever pay for the longer life through the savings made. They are simply not reliable enough and on average don't last the distance they claim to.
LED offer some hope, but compact fluoros are a joke.
What you also need to consider is the psychological effect. The colour temperature of incandescent has not been matched yet.
If you want green then go for tallow based candles.
Also the saving are minor compared to what can be gained by targeting space heating, water heating and refridgeration.
Horses for courses...
I dont have a huge sample but,
I re-did most of my house with [compact] fluros because at the time my young children got up during the night and put all the lights on when raiding the kitchen or going to the loo and then used to leave them all on....most nights my house was lit up like a xmas tree...Based on that it made economic sense.
For branding I have seen no real difference between cheap bulbs, those eco bulbs and say philips ....in fact I think the biggest eco bulbs may not last well maybe 2 years ( the 125w equiv ones) all the smaller 100w and lower replacements seem to be lasting several years...4+. So in terms of energy saved I would say they have paid for themselves and are still working at 5 years....
For say a toilet or short used room tungsetn is the best bet IMHO if you odnt have young kids....for hall ways and long use rooms I would go compact fluro....we have a 5 head fluro in the bedroom for general lighting, at the light is OK and they are over 3 years old with no changes, then we use halogen spots to read by....Lounge has 6 x fluros, only one failure in 5+ years.
For the kitchen I have gone 2 x 2x5ft fluro units, lots of light and very cheap tubes, fine to prepare food under and the covers can be taken down easily and washed easily....not pretty I admit but the spots and halogens kept failing and eat power.....and got dirty and were horrid to clean...
Things I notice on most fluros is they dont like coming on in cold weather and also take time to warm, colour, yes Ok not perfect but good enough IMHO....
The biggest point of installing them Nationally was to save on peak electricity generation capacity and not so mauch as energy savers.....the blindly stupid attitude of banning tungsten was plain dumb IMHO....
LEDs, PDK I think uses them a lot....12volts, Im thinking about them myself....considering putting some in the hallway and solar powered.....you only need a few watts to transit a hall....emergency lighting in a power cut.
regards
Fluoros are great for work surfaces as you have done. LED's do show a lot of promise and will hopefully supercede them.
I always consider the pschological and the closer the temperature to naked flame the better:) Space and light are so intertwined that one can't be considered without the other.
... another 1st of April in politics: Paul H. - and John & Winston 'pairing up"
Mr Serepisos would do well to read this link - http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-100m-global-scam-20110305-1biyh.html as would his creditors......
I'm beginning to question is why Portugal's deficit is considered to have "blown out" whilst both Britain and the United Kingdom both have deficits that are higher, and yet neither of them have faced credit downgrades,. Why? Does this reveal an obvious bias by the credit ratings agencies, all of which are based in the United States or Great Britain, or more worryingly a conspiracy on behalf of certain powerful special interest groups?
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html
"Britain's public finances are in a worse position than those of Greece, according to the latest figures on government borrowing."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/shock-as-british-defici…
"Representatives of George Soros's investment business were among an all-star line up of Wall Street investors at an 'ideas dinner' at a private townhouse in Manhattan, according to reports."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1253791/Is-man-broke-Bank-England-George-Soros-centre-hedge-funds-betting-crisis-hit-euro.html#ixzz3Hj9XGMOuAlert Wal-mart shoppers! Inflation approaching at break neck speed;
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/wal-mart-ceo-america-prepare-serious-inflation
And no, we can't restock with Made in the USA - thanks to us, we hollowed out your local manufacturing base long ago.
Amazing high res photos of Fukushima Daiichi. Reactor #3 looks like a total catastrophe.
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