90 seconds at 9 am: US stocks down 0.9% as jobless claims rise and consumer confidence weakens; Euro-zone doubts return; Chinese, Euro factory output contracts

Bingo ...................... are Germany  about to exit the union.....will the duck finally be stomped out.....!!!

 Is this true...........? well we'll have to wait for breaking news now wont we..?

It is obvious what Central Banks will do (in absence of Political will ) whenever the economy goes south....PRINT.

Despite all the results from previous QEs proving that it does not work, CBs can only do one thing ...PRINT.  They obviously cannot do the reverse....it would be disaster and they would all end up in jail. 

In the end, the US will have QE3 just to keep the stock market afloat (at least one part of the economy is alive)

In the end Germany will allow "unlimited" bond purchase by the ECB (disguised money printing) inorder to keep the "dream" alive.

In the end China will have to print Reminbi to pay for all the Banks losses from dead infrastructure and properties bubbles.

In the next year or two we will have massive money printing by all THREE major economies (not to mention Japan which is already printing from a red hot printing press for the past 5 years)...... 

Why not to go back to a gold standard

"This book offers a reassessment of the international monetary problems that led to the global economic crisis of the 1930s. It explores the connections between the gold standard--the framework regulating international monetary affairs until 1931--and the Great Depression that broke out in 1929. Eichengreen shows how economic policies, in conjunction with the imbalances created by World War I, gave rise to the global crisis of the 1930s. He demonstrates that the gold standard fundamentally constrained the economic policies that were pursued and that it was largely responsible for creating the unstable economic environment on which those policies acted. The book also provides a valuable perspective on the economic policies of the post-World War II period and their consequences."

http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Fetters-Depression-1919-1939-Development/d…

"A return to a fixed money supply would also remove the central bank’s ability to offset demand shocks by varying interest rates. That could mean a more volatile economy and higher average unemployment over time."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48770752

regards

All goes when globalisation goes.

You said a mouthful there Steven...!, The sad thing is the Concept had the bones to benifit citizens of the world ,including the developing economies, the perverse putrification of the Concept  by those financiers who saw unlimited opportunity to profit and produce nothing  while socialising any level of risk undermining the entire charter of the Concept.

I still see a return to protectionism , and think it will be fuelled by the diminished identities of those who took part in this Globalisation fraud in good faith.

Where does all this contraction, losses and "bad news" leave New Zealand. If no country is buying, when do we realise that riding on the cows teet will leave us no wiggle room. In other words, when does the commodities market reflect the actual state of the worlds spending ability?

Hugh, the article quotes John Key as saying the land is not worth a lot in its current state.

This shows that Key has no idea about the reality on the ground.

Land in the CBD was being snapped up at strong prices (I believe the CCC itself purchased a Gloucester St site next to the Art Gallery at about $3000/m2).

Some sales may have been on the low side and the very prime locations which suited tall office buildings with limited retail may have seen a slight fall because tall buildings are now unlikely, but the areas in the frame were generally considered to be worth the same or more than equivalent vacant lots pre earthquake.

Market value of the land in the frame ranges from $1000/m2 to probably $3000/m2 for land on High St.  An average might be $1500/m2 (excl GST).  That puts the minimum purchase cost at about $300million.  Plus another $200million for the other sites required.

Half a billion dollars!  Why?  Where's that coming from?  Who does it help?  No one!  What does it recover?  Nothing! 

Bankrupt ideas, from morally and financially bankrupt politicians.