sign up log in
Want to go ad-free? Find out how, here.

Thursday's Top 10 with NZ Mint: Two tiered Swiss currency; Wolf savages Basel III 'mouse'; China-US trade tensions; Dilbert

Thursday's Top 10 with NZ Mint: Two tiered Swiss currency; Wolf savages Basel III 'mouse'; China-US trade tensions; Dilbert

Here are my Top 10 links from around the Internet at 10 to 7am, brought to you in association with New Zealand Mint for your reading pleasure.

Nice and early today before I go into the lockup in the Reserve Bank for the Monetary Policy statement due out at 9 am. 

I welcome your additions and comments below, or please send suggestions for Friday's Top 10 at 10 via email to bernard.hickey@interest.co.nz. I'll pop any surplus suggestions I get into the comment stream under the Top 10.

1. It's getting hairy again - Japan intervened to sell the yen again overnight, pushing the Australian and New Zealand dollars higher. This is a new phase in the money-printing-race-to-the-bottom competition between central banks trying to find something (anything) to get their economies going ahead.

The next step to watch will be the Fed's meeting next week and whether it sets sail with a new round of Quantitative Easing.

We may be in for a rocky few weeks ahead.

See below the problems too in China and Ireland.

November's congressional elections in America are shaping up as a reality check for America's elite. Those pesky Tea Party types keep winning primary elections. Something is brewing oop north.

2. China's banking problems - Bloomberg reports China’s banking regulator may require the nation’s biggest lenders to boost their capital adequacy ratios to as high as 15 percent by the end of 2012.

China seems to be very serious about slowing down its economy.

China’s rules would be stricter than capital requirements announced Sept. 12 by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in response to the global financial crisis.

The country has moved to rein in risk-taking among banks this year after last year’s record $1.4 trillion of new loans fanned concerns about the financial system’s ability to withstand future stress.

3. China vs US trade tensions rising -  Ambrose Evans Pritchard at the Telegraph reports China has warned Washington that the US will come off worst in a trade war if it imposes sanctions against Beijing over the two nations' currency dispute.

Ding Yifan, a policy guru at the Development Research Centre, said China could respond by selling holdings of US debt, estimated at over $1.5 trillion (£963bn). This would trigger a rise in US interest rates. His comments at a forum in Beijing follow a string of remarks by Chinese officials questioning US credit-worthiness and the reliability of the dollar. China's authorities seem split over how to respond to moves on Capitol Hill for legislation to punish Beijing for holding down the yuan.

The central bank has ruled out use of its "nuclear weapon", insisting that it would not exploit its $2.45 trillion of foreign reserves for political purposes. "The US Treasury market is a very important market for China," it said. However, the mood is hardening on both sides of the Pacific.

The dispute risks escalating if China's trade surplus with the US climbs further and more US jobs are lost. US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who has taken a softly-softly line in the past, said on Friday that China had done "very little" to correct the undervaluation of the yuan since ending the dollar peg in June.

4. The mouse that did not roar - Martin Wolf writes at FT.com about how inadequate the new Basel III rules are. He tears them to shreds.

A must read for anyone who cares about these things. Which should be everyone. HT John Walley

The regulators are trying to make the existing financial system less unsafe, incrementally. That is better than nothing. But it will not create a safe system. The world cannot afford another such crisis for at least a generation. By these standards what is emerging is simply insufficient. This mouse will never roar loudly enough.

5. The other problems with Basel III - Felix Salmon from Reuters is similarly sceptical.

Basel III is essentially a bold new layer built over the old Basel II architecture, in much the same way that early versions of Windows were layered on top of DOS. And just as early versions of Windows shared some of the weaknesses of DOS, so has Basel III inherited some of the problems of Basel II.

The main one is the whole concept of risk weighting: the idea that some assets are riskier than others, and that banks should hold more capital against risky assets (unsecured loans to people with a 550 credit rating, say) than they do against much safer assets, like loans to the US government. That makes a certain amount of sense, but there are two main problems with it.

For one thing, it’s backwards-looking: it reckons that the securities which have been risky in the past are the same as the securities which will be risky in the future. That obviously isn’t true. And secondly, it’s easy to game.

He points out one big weakness remains. Banks will concentrate on buying government bonds. Bond bubble anyone?

Basel III effectively doubles down on Basel II. Banks will need to hold more common equity than ever—against their risk-weighted assets. That massively increases the incentive to find low-risk-weight assets with some return, since these assets can be leveraged much more highly than risky assets.

Unless I’ve missed something, lending to AA-rated sovereigns still carries a risk-weight of zero. So one result of Basel III could be to encourage banks to increase their lending to sovereigns at the margins of zero-risk-weight status. If that happens, anyone want to guess where the next crisis will crop up?

6. Longer, slower and lower - Carmen Reinhart and Vincent Reinhart have written at Voxeu about what happens after major financial crises. Essentially, house prices fall in the following decade, growth slows and economies deleverage. Everyone ready for this? I'm not the only one talking about a long, slow and grinding recovery dominated by deleveraging. It's that or something altogether more explosive, complete with new financial blowups, mass money printing and hyperinflation.

Real housing prices for the full period is available for ten of the fifteen financial crisis episodes. For this group, over an eleven-year period (encompassing the crisis year and the decade that followed), about 90% of the observations show real house prices below their level the year before the crisis. Median housing prices are 15% to 20% lower in this eleven-year window, with cumulative declines as large as 55%. The observations on unemployment and house prices, of course, may be related, as a protracted slump in construction activity that accompanies depressed housing prices may help to explain persistently higher unemployment. Another important driver of the cycle is the leverage of the private sector.

In the decade prior to a crisis, domestic credit/GDP climbs about 38% and external indebtedness soars. Credit/GDP declines by an amount comparable to the surge (38%) after the crisis. However, deleveraging is often delayed and is a lengthy process lasting about seven years. The decade that preceded the onset of the 2007 crisis fits the historic pattern. If deleveraging of private debt follows the tracks of previous crises as well, credit restraint will damp employment and growth for some time to come.  

7. Two tiered currency? - Zerohedge points to some talk from Swiss unions about a two tiered currency to protect Swiss exporters from a rush to the last safe haven on the planet now the Japanese are selling yen. This is what happens when everyone tries to race to the bottom. It all ends in talk of capital and currency controls. Then the inevitable trade wars. See number 3 above.

The Swiss Trade Union, “SGB” is calling for the Swiss National Bank to either step up its intervention efforts or establish a two tier exchange rate system. From NZZ today: The monetary authorities should intervene directly in the foreign exchange market, SGB representatives demanded on Wednesday before the media. Export companies should also switch to a special rate euro against Swiss francs.

8. Ireland's deep, deep problem - Simon Johnson and Peter Boone write at Project Syndicate about the major problems with Ireland and why eventually a Latin American 'Brady Bond' solution may be required.

Either banks need to default on their senior obligations, or the government will need to default alongside the banks. In either case, new austerity measures are needed, and Ireland will require substantial bridge financing. Irish and EU politicians should take the lead in making these tough decisions, but the current leadership will not.

Instead, the EU, the ECB, and Ireland have reached a Faustian bargain that keeps Ireland liquid (i.e., it gets euros), but does nothing to halt the growing likelihood of insolvency (i.e., its increasing inability to pay back those euros in the future).

9. The need for a living will - Two years on from the collapse of Lehman Bros, the corporate undertakers are still unwinding the morass and cleaning up the mess. There are still 800 people working on the carcass. The Guardian has a nice story. HT Brendan via email.

Some 300 PwC staff are now located in two floors at 25 Canada Square in Canary Wharf, near the former head office of Lehman, from which staff of the collapsed investment bank were pictured walking away with their cardboard boxes as the crisis shook the banking system. A further 500 or so Lehman staff and contractors are also working on the administration, including Tom Bollard, formerly chief risk officer of Lehman's European operations. Their job is to sieve through all the "assets" they can find – be they shares in firms or art works, which will be auctioned on 29 September with an aim to raise £2m.

To help explain the complexity of the challenge they face in getting billions of pounds back to creditors, Jervis reveals that the team continues to find new Lehman ventures on a "regular basis". To date about 1,300 have been found and include special purpose vehicles of the kind that faced scrutiny as the credit crunch began in the late summer of 2007.

10. Totally relevant video - Jon Stewart at The Daily Show talks about the American 'Summer of Recovery.'

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Faces of Debt
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.

Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

43 Comments

Bernard - when you are in the lockup you might care to apologise to Alan Bollard for putting pressure on him to erroneously start tightening far too early.

http://www.realeconomy.co.nz/90-ocr_hike_reckless.aspx

http://www.realeconomy.co.nz/96-survey_pride_or_prudence.aspx

Cheers, Les.

www.mea.org.nz

Up
0

"Disgraced former Defence Force top scientist Stephen Wilce ignored concerns about military projects which led to at least one cost blow-out of $100 million, it was alleged last night."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10673768 

$100mio lost is one thing, but such incompetence can also put the lives of defence forces personnel at risk.

How can this be acceptable?

Oh, of course ....

http://www.interest.co.nz/comment/reply/50541/573270

 .... anything is possible with 'The County Council'!

Up
0

You're forgetting, he trained with the Cool Runnings team. His research will have consisted of "Are you dead mon?" "Yeah mon."

Up
0

Oh well, he has met the standard of most NZ research then, eh bro? Choice!

Up
0

Les Rudd

"Go back to 6.3 of the DOG's and tell me that SCF in the guarantee period was run in a "proper, business like, efficient and prudent manner". It's own CEO, in the final foreign accented "fuck you" to New Zealand taxpayer has now publicly admitted it was not."

So the Government had every justification to NOT pay the SCF investors at all, never mind all the investors not qualified for payment anyway. So why pay it John? Why aren't our useless MSM and the opposition all over this?

I'm sick of this bullshit, this is our money and John Key doesn't give a rats arse.

Up
0

I was quoting a great article by Cactus Kate, a couple of comments up in that thread:

http://asianinvasion2006.blogspot.com/2010/08/ahubb-over-hotch.html#links

It's worth a read, because it also answers one of your questions - "Why aren't our useless MSM and the opposition all over this?"

Answer - because it appears many of them don't have the intelligence, insight and savvy that some part-time bloggers have in spades.

As for your other questions, c'mon, what do you expect out of The County Council?

It'd be ok if we were paying em' peanuts, maybe there'd be an excuse, but instead they get quite the opposite, plus perks.

Up
0

When you pay peanuts, you get friendly, intelligent and agreeable monkeys. When you pay in fillet steak and caviar, you get the predatory, greedy, smelly, sociopathic ferrits/weasels. They smell and are attracted by the blood.  I reakon we should go back to paying peanuts. I enjoyed it when NZ was run by monkeys who did their jobs for the love it and were pretty good at it to boot.  Those socially minded monkeys were happy as long as they earned enough money to pay the mortgage, keep the car on the road, feed and clothe the kids and have some money left over for a camping holiday and family get-together at Christmas time.

Up
0

yep that stinks alright. Momentum is obviously allied to the political community in this country and simply are not up to it.   It seems like jobs for the boys, for want of a better word.

 

in a similar vein, seeing that ACT are only in because the Nats didn't contest Epsom, what responsibility does Mr Key have for the disaster that is the ACT party? A popular theme with the right is personal responsibility, so how responsible is Mr Key for ACT?

Up
0

"How responsible is John Key"-Seems you are not so sure about our smile and wave PM?In trading money there`s no yes or no,just which way is the wind blowing,and in that job, as in this one, our John is very adept.You don`t truly expect our political parties to show integrity and courage do you?Sad isn`t it?

Up
0

at first i though a smiling assassin would be good for us, but now i think we have an assassin who is pursueing his own agenda rather than working for us. yep disappointed. and yep possibly naive.

Up
0

I think in the beginning a lot of us thought a change would do us good.... and that was right

and reasonable at the time...... but I could not agree more ....this guy is always taken care of number one.....it is just in his nature....that is how he got to the top in the shark pool he teethed in.

to have lost sight of that was naive on our part...... 

Up
0

Prime Minister of New Zealand, is just the latest postion on John Key's CV. ( at least we all know it's fair dinkum!). At 49, he's after a bigger, more international vacancy. Helen is his vanguard.

Up
0

Nice thought ..Number 6....but I'm thinking he'll opt to go a little more the Mike Moore way....now that would be where the big boys swim ....wouldn't it.

Up
0

I just thought John Key-Moon had a nice ring to it!

Up
0

Bout as good as Ban Key Boy.

Up
0

We just gotta hope The County Council don't find the cider or we'll get even wurze performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHtfZCMYCP0&feature=related

Up
0

Not trying to be rude at all, but anyone who can read body language and words could smell JK for the rat he was long before he got the top job. Party politics is a disgrace, and NZ'ers are allowing themselves to be taken for a ride because they are too lazy to do what needs to be done in order to effect systematical change, and force accountability into those who seek the halls of power.

Up
0

Well Lloyd.......I am all ears for one..... you used the line "too lazy to do what needs to be done"...............please clarify.

You used ...to effect systemic change( at least I think you meant  systemic) change and force accountability.................please give examples.

You see the problem is Lloyd as I pointed out in a blog of long ago....there are people who begin politics with the best of intentions and ultruistic motive....

They find themselves fringe dwelling until they have learned to......compromise...... and little by little.... week in week out ...more compromise until they themselves have been compromised and are now part of the system.

In politics compromise is the drug of choice .....the more you do....the more you need.....untill the junkie mentality sets in and you find yourself saying ...oh ...things like ..."It's not for the baubles of power"........in itself an absurd statement from a Junkie who had compromised himself right out of office.

As to ourselves is our apathy borne of laziness....?is it borne of distraction by selfish indulgence....?Or have we been subtly convinced that  we really have no redress unless by election.... based on a format that we are not entirely satisfied with either.

Case point....you are posted by mail five options... none of which serves your interests....one of which has been geared to look the most attractive... and conversely one the least attractive.....

The very instrument you are required to use....(or have no say at all).... has been geared to a desired outcome...or compromised....

Educating our future to understand the nature of systemic corruption will probably be the only thing to have any real impact on the political staus Quo......failing that ..annexation..failing that ...a peoples revolution.

of course I should mention white-anting is effective but once your spotted you are stomped with prejudice.

Up
0

RE: #3

My understanding is that China more-or-less has to buy US bonds, as that's how it fixes the yuan/USD exchange rate. Consequently, if China was to sell large parts of it's US bond holding, presumably in exchange for yuan, then the latter would appreciate in value - something they're really not keen on. As such, I don't think this is a credible threat, or one that would leave the Chinese unscathed.

Up
0

   Its always too little too late..Didn't America realise when they poured the technology and Businesses into China ,that the short term gain would never equal the long term loss.Globalisation dosn't look so hot now...The mantra "No subsidies"..looks a bit week when slave labour isn't considered a subsidy.This was bound to end in tears. 

Up
0

"Globalisation doesn't look so hot now"

We could all see this coming anonentity but try telling Mad Mike and his deranged side kick Douglas.  So their plan was we'd dick around mowing each others lawns and selling houses to each other. The Chinese would make everything and lend us the money to buy it. Brilliant in it's simplicity really, I mean, what could go wrong.

They give knighthoods out for this sort of stuff. How come Mike hasn't got his yet? 

Up
0

 

The Chinese manufacturers, after building their wealth as sub-contractors to Western big brands are now moving up the food chain. Self branding and then retailing. This promises to well and truly bite the western traitor companies in the arse. What a plan -impoverish your buying public by outsourcing their jobs, then get undercut in your home market by your former subbies. Brilliant!

"Chicony, maker of a power device used in the Xbox fromMicrosoft and a major supplier of computer keyboards toDell, is diversifying by opening department stores" 

 "after years of assembling vacuum cleaners and rechargeable toothbrushes for Philips and other Western companies, Kwonnie Electrical Products is planning its own line of home appliances."

“We want to do more original design and build our own brand,” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/business/global/16factory.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Up
0

   What could go wrong?..Its a bit like Murphys law isn't?.....If Chinas economy slows down, you will notice her millitary will speed up. Because Beijing is riding a Dragon, after Tiejinaman square,the population can only dream about a democracy with checks and balances. If they had a market driven economy,wages would have balanced out, and it would be business as usual.The old guard in the party remember fighting side by side with the North Koreans against the American Imperialists.So no love lost,there.Whether an economic war was planned against America,or it just happened it dosn't matter now. As America is economicaly dependent on China.

  Russia with its vast resources has made Europe dependent on Its Gas reserves.The supposed fall of the Soviet Union..Cant be said to be complete untill it too has a system of checks and balances.Dissadent journalists end up dying, and like the czars of old, good times are had in Moscow ,the rest of it economicaly hasn't changed much.So the Democratic dream for the Russians has been throttled.Like the Chinese most would welcome a Regime change. These are the major players who's populations would like a Regime change.

  America now has  its wealth  sucked away..and left with a real 20% unemployment rate..,add to that the QE. Should have been around 20 trillion dolars to make a differences add that South American labour is pouring in across the Mexican Border.Add to that , the drug cartels,are in a position to take on Mexican Law enforcement. The only thing that the New Normal hasn't changed is the twenty percent of Federal Budget spent on its millitary. A very right wing sector of its society. Where a peice of Millitary equipment is called an "Asset",Then I ask how many assets has America got left?

Up
0

Really, you know that the Chinese want regime change do you? Just like the Iraqi's wanted it. You sound like Bush/Blair/Rumsfeld etc. Democracy at work for over a billion people. Don't make me laugh...

Up
0

Yes Iraq wanted a regime change..Wouldnt you if you got tortured for loosing a football match.

Up
0

The EU is cracking down on the use of derivatives

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/15/eu-proposes-tougher-rules_n_71…

cheers

Bernard

Up
0

HuffPo? Yeah I'm gonna go ahead and not even bother clicking that link...

Up
0

Then thats another form of Capital that would have given blood to a sick economy.The poor thing must be pretty anemic by now.

Up
0

This is a cracking read from John Kay at FT.com on why the big multinational retail/investment banks should still be broken up

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/929ad19e-c034-11df-b77d-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss

HT Les Rudd

cheers

Bernard

Up
0
Kay is a CASPer* and Complex adaptive systems thinking provides the practical answer. "Serious reform must begin with a realistic assessment of what regulation can actually achieve. Regulators can observe compliance with prescribed procedures – and in reality that is what they mostly do – but have very limited ability or opportunity to assess whether behaviour is prudent. It is much easier to observe whether a retail bank is engaged in investment banking than to judge whether it is managing its investment banking well. Regulation of structure is enforceable. Supervision of behaviour is simultaneously extensive and intrusive yet ineffective and prone to regulatory capture. That is the experience not just of financial services but of many other industries." (Hard to manage and supervise individual animals, better to work at the jungle level - to use John W's metaphor.) If only more people would engage in such thinking, like OUR PARLIAMENTARIANS! Came across the article on the Real Economy blog news stream: http://www.realeconomy.co.nz/news.aspx More goodies there. Try the RSS. Cheers, Les. www.mea.org.nz * Complex adaptive systems pragmatist.
Up
0

House sales are becoming impossible for real estate agents in Canterbury as home buyers get hit by tougher regulations on house insurance.

http://www.landlords.co.nz/read-article.php?article_id=3816

Braziers Property Investments principal Tony Brazier said the problem was with a stand-down period insurance companies had put on house policies in Canterbury.

Once a house is sold the new owner would have to wait 21 days before they were insured under new legislation. However, a bank would not finance a house without insurance.

"This totally stuffed all contracts last Friday. People ready to settle were unable to get insurance so they could not finance. It almost needs the Government to look at it to see if it is fair for the insurance companies to do that," Brazier said.

However, once the 21-day stand-down period was over a new home owner was not guaranteed insurance, as companies were wanting to see evidence the properties were structurally sound before they would insure them, he said.

"We don't yet know to what level that inspection will have to be.

"We have advised our sales people they will not be able to make sales unless they put in a building clause to say that it is approved by the council or has a certificate of inspection, but it is a bit early to say if that will be enough," Brazier said.

Insurance Council of New Zealand spokesman Terry Jordan predicted insurance companies would ease their regulations in about three to four weeks.

He said some companies had agreed to drop the 21-day stand-down period if the vendor and purchaser both had insurance. However, most companies would only approve insurance polices with extensive geo-tech reports.

"It is a problem insurers are acutely aware of. When they can gain some confidence in the market they will be able to relax the regulations."

However, there are no guarantees.

"If we get another big shake then we are back at square one."

__________________________________________________________

It will be interesting to see how long this deadlock continues, how much it affects house prices in Canterbury, and whether this problem spreads to other more quake prone areas like Wellington.

While not directly affected by the Chch quake I was a bit surprised to find out that Nelson is only 35km from the main alpine fault .... so I'd be surprised if insurance companies don't also tighten up requirements for geotech reports here and many other parts of NZ.

Seems to me like this insurance problem could really accelerate the rate of house price falls in many parts of NZ.    

 

 

 

Up
0

7) Can we not make political/ economic changes, and adopt some better concepts from other countries because of cultural differences ?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/swiss-trade-unions-we-want-two-tiered-franc?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+zerohedge/feed+(zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline,+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero)

Especially now in current worldwide turmoil a small economy like ours needs to be constructed to succeed - particularly long term. The best way to do that is a “Mixed Economy Model”.

I doubt if this is ever possible here in NZ, but do not know exactually the reason why.

Up
0

Agree 100% on both fronts. This is where NZ should be trying to get to, but this is not going to be allowed to happen. I'll give some reasons why, there are many more..

  1. The voters of NZ only get the leadership they deserve. The power lies with the people, but the people are too lazy to take it back, for now.
  2. Vested interests with Government, NZ business, and foreign interests have no desire to allow the status quo to be stopped. Accountability will never surface under the current party political farce. The only concern of government is the perpetuity of government. Think they really care about the people…think again.
  3. Designed to succeed requires as many hands/mind working towards positives outcomes as possible. In NZ we far too many people going to waste being propped up. There needs to be a very large cultural awakening in NZ before this can ever happen. Those at the bottom being paid for have no reason to wake up, those at the top the same but for other reasons. The awakening will only come from the middle, if it ever does.
  4. Accountability needs to be forced onto the politicians, and only will be when point 3 happens, otherwise it’s SNAFU

 

NZ with 4m people and over 120 MP’s should be the best run country on earth. Instead what we have is a broken, divided mess. One could argue that this has been by design to fail in order to empower and enrich those at the top. I don’t see too many people winning over there.

Up
0

I am sorry...there you have it...I have been too hard on our politicians of late...too quick to poke a stick into the flab and point out the stench that drifts through that body of hard working underpaid lot...I must temper my enthusiam for bashing pollies...they work so hard and deserve all the perks and fair pay....not for me to laugh at Rodders for keeping secrets...or make fun of Cunliffe's three piece suits, flash ties and efforts to learn economics 101...these people are well meaning and of good character.....and anyway...if it were not for them all...we would have to pay a hell of a lot more for our entertainment!

Up
0

What a load of bollocks Wolly.If they`re entertainers then they`re overpaid and useless.

Personally I don`t care how they dress,as long as they`re tidy.Enjoyed Winstons great suits and his ability to p..s the journalists off.

They`re not entertainers or performers,they`re our well paid representatives who are supposed to be representing our views and bringing us all sound conditions for us to develop and grow.It`s not about them ,it`s about the country.

Up
0

Oh exalted one...forgive me for my sins...excuse my mistaken judgement oh wise and gifted one...for I am but a mortal and not worthy of your time.....

Up
0

And now for some good honest fun:

"There is no escape".......... http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article22735.html

I promise you the best laugh in years....read on punters!

Up
0

   As far as paying tax goes everyone hates it but we all have too.We hate it because we have no say on how its spent...In Australia the stuff at the Supermarket costs the same in dollar terms as it does here..If you take in the rate of exchange they are paying  20 % more than we are.How lucky is that.?..Anyway why not have just one tax source like GST at twenty five percent and forget every other form of taxation??  we could then sack the IRD.and save billions.

Up
0

An interesting thought anonentity..the IRD are onto you boyo..the trouble with gst at 25% is it's way above the watershed rate where peasants opt to grow their own and have a swap around to get a bit of everything...even now at 15% approaching fast the IRD are eyes open for the black market burst of activity...they are doing the farmer's markets and the weekend markets to catch out those who have discovered there are ways to avoid throwing away 12.5% of your munny.

All this trading activity is soooo much easier with the new fangled computer thingee. Pretty soon we will be a nation of tax avoiders and benefit takers. Bill will too busy borrowing billions to prevent a 'Greeking' of the accounts.

Paye will be here for a long time to come for one simple reason...it is the easiest way for govt to steal munny from fools who work for wages and salaries.

Best new earner is going door to door and swinging a cash job for a morning. Even teaching English to the new immigrants is worth a crack. Not even Tolley can touch you.

Up
0

Even better...and one Parky must read...."bridges to nowhere"

 http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article22732.html

Up
0

Yesterday, Douglas Carswell MP (Conservative, Clacton) introduced legislation into the UK parliament that takes the first step towards ending fractional reserve banking. The bill would have the effect of making fractional reserve banking impossible, requiring a shift to full-reserve banking (where the bank either lends your money, or keeps it safe, but doesn't claim to do both at the same time!). In plain English, it would stop private banks being able to create money as debt.

http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/2010/09/douglas-carswell-mp-introduces-bill-to-stop-fractional-reserve-banking/

Needless to say, totaly ignored by media

Up
0

Bet you Douglas has a big fat mortgage!.....and is into property using credit dreamed up by the very system he so openly attacks...this behaviour will have nothing at all to do with an effort to win votes ..hell no.

And as soon as Douglas is offered a directorship position by a bank...requiring no actual brain on his part...he will whistle a new tune.

Up
0

There's something you don't see very often these days - a poly with spine. Good on Mr Carswell. I wonder if we could get one of our Tories to bring in a bill like that?

Wally - did you watch the YouTube Stream?

Bernard - am surprised this hasn't figured in todays Ten at Whenever article?

Cheers, Les. 

Up
0