90 seconds at 9 am: US payrolls grow; China says its banks have enough capital; housing grows worldwide; interest rates rising; NZ$1 = US$0.774, TWI = 73.5

And housing is booming here and around the world, including in places you may not have realised - like Japan, for example.

Others believe the above comment is a reflection of the past and have the temerity to say so.

As Goldman notes, the rise in mortgage rates may impact the economy through two broad channels: (1) the direct impact on construction activity and home sales, which feed into the residential investment component of GDP, and (2) the indirect effects of lower home prices and less refinancing activity on consumption. Goldman estimates Housing Starts could plunge 11% in the coming quarters, total home sales could drop 7%, residential investment may fall 6 percentage points, could weigh on home prices, and pull up to 0.4 percentage points from real GDP growth - presenting a significant downside risk to their somewhat rosy current outlook.

The bottom-line - This represents an appreciable but not insurmountable growth drag... and a continued deterioration in financial conditions would present a significant downside risk to that outlook. Read more

Mine's for sale, any takers? - nice sea views - offers well above 2007 GV sought - just kidding

http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/263050/rival-canal-bid-end-china-will-decide

And that, in turn, will depend on whether China's economy remains strong enough to afford such an indulgence. At the moment, I wouldn't bet on it".

It just just keeps getting better for the entitled and foreign owners that specialise in apparently hollowing out local companies with related party debt overloads - hence no tax is collected.

Another overseas-owned lines company, Wellington Electricity Distribution, has an even higher proportion of related-party debt than Powerco and in Chalkie's reading of its accounts has paid no company tax at all since its sale by Auckland-based Vector in 2008.

The tax losses came despite healthy profits at ebit level of close to $50m a year.

Wellington Electricity Distribution, incidentally, is owned by Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Infrastructure through a holding company in the Bahamas. Read more

Then this dark warning is conveniently placed in the press, post the Wellington storm. Read more

The $5 million repair job to the electricity network after Wellington's worst storm in decades could end up being recouped in your power bill.

Wellington Electricity had increased its workforce from 80 to 250 since the storm on Thursday, June 20, and chief executive Greg Skelton said the costs had been "significant".

"We spend $11m to $12m maintaining the network each year. It's going to be a much higher cost this year.

"We think the cost from this is going to be between $3m and $5m, primarily from the cost of scaling up the work force."

Spending almost a quarter of the maintenance budget in one week meant the company was looking hard at where costs could be recouped, Skelton said.

"The price from 2015 forward will consider some of the costs we have had, but we're still assessing things at the moment."

If bumping up power bills was the most effective way, that could not be done until 2015 when the electricity industry's default price-quality path was next set.