John Key has been unable to turn our economy around

[SPman]

ACC does not have the money reserves to pay claims into the future. There is no debate about that. It's a statistical fact.

A fallacious statement - it would only have no money to pay all claims into the future, if it's income stopped right now, and it had to pay out every single claim on the basis that it would be paying for the life of the claimant, 20-30-40-50 yrs into the future! All at once! Which is bullshit!

[gammaguy]

To be honest I would have been a lot happier if he had announced abolishing the doll for long term beneficiaries.

Crikey,they provide those for them too?cant they just shag each other??

[superman]

I'm sure there are some that do as you state but do you really believe they are responsible for the position NZ finds itself in, Tonight Key stated there are 300,000 working age people on benefits, including unemployment, sickness amid others. Even if 20% of those are fraudulent that equates to 750000. Keys gift to his buddy's being 50% of the recent tax cuts cost more than that.

But how much money goes straight back to the government tax packet from the tax cuts he gave? If the top bracket have more money they'll probably be more likely start businesses, create more jobs to help stimulate the economy. It's not like that money is just lost to them forever with no further benefit to the country.

Though I guess it would be better to give the greatest tax cut to the lowest economic bracket, because they won't spend it on alcohol and drugs.

[Winston001]

A fallacious statement - it would only have no money to pay all claims into the future, if it's income stopped right now, and it had to pay out every single claim on the basis that it would be paying for the life of the claimant, 20-30-40-50 yrs into the future! All at once! Which is bullshit!

And yet that is exactly what compensation schemes do. They build up a fund to cover existing claims into the future. Its identical to superannuation. A lump of money has to be found or made at some point.

I can tell you that ACC didn't used to do this in a rigorous way. In the 1990s I remember ACC levies dropping slightly, then suddenly zooming up because the long-term claims drained the system.

If you truly want an ACC structure where the levies move around substantially year to year, fine. Just understand they won't go down and in some years the increase will be large. Most people want certainty, not sudden large bills.

[Brian d marge]

It was predominantly borrowed from overseas investors via Aussie banks and finance companies (some of whom are now dead and buried). The focus on inflation rate control using the RBA resulted in the RB cranking up interest rates whenever inflation reared it's ugly head in the vain hope that this would reduce demand for money. the only outcome was the hot money overseas saw the high interest rates and poured into NZ, thereby driving up the exchange rate which in turn kept prices of imported goods low. The banks were flush with money, so they lent it out as fast as they could (easy loans, no payments until June 2098, 100% mortgages etc), and that in turn drove consumption which kept prices high (especialy property).

Ta

was mulling things over today so tapped out on phone.....

Yes it was the Japanese, the ordinary Japanese husband looking safeguard their retirement as the bond rate here is 0 %

Cant blame em for that
The average family in nz wanted to relax and chill in front of the tv
Cant blame em for that

Where where the safe guards, the credit limits the responsible lending
Now we start to blame . Both lenders and the borrowers ( greed one might say ~)

What ever the cause ,,,,,as that is the past. The future is what concerns me

With four million people a big vege garden and more sheep that Bruce could have his wicked way with in a year

We had better start looking after kiwis first (all kiwis Afghani kiwis , African kiwis kiwi kiwis.........(except those chineese people with there kung fu and there ching chang chong talk ...cant understand you

Anyways,......
Health
Education
Food
Heat and light

ALL OF WHICH WE PRODUCE ENOUGH OF (not sure about electricity at the current demand )
and with coking coal expected to rise .. ( what a better time to sell,,)

My feeling is that none of the above needs to be run on a commercial for profit basis

The difference between a old style government dept and a for profit commercial dept is the accountability caused by profit and shareholders

Now if this could be emulated in government deportment then all well and good

In the meantime a Japanese Zen master ? (Before tv and did a lot of thinking)
Said something along the lines if
Frustration and the unhappiness it causes is from the feeling of powerlessness knowing that in the end we all share the same fate and there is jack we can do about it
Recognize the lack of powerlessness and you will better for it
Now i know why all this financial mess is occurring (I'm aware,but theres jack i can really do about it )
So recognize the lack of ability to change it,- don't stress about it
But make decisions based on the knowledge and you will be a whole lot happier in the long run

So I'm going to get me a vege garden (well thats my retirement all sorted out !!!!)
Dont need me tv ,have a bike that will see me to the end of me days,
I can leach wifi of the cocky next door ( sorry need me porn )
Oh and a symbolic spinning wheel

Stephen

[Swoop]

... it makes them the lesser of two evils considering labors last bribing speech.

How many have forgotten about liarbour's past bribing speeches? The equivalent of a packet of chewing gum, tax benefit... only after 3 years.

Now, lets take Air NZ. What bit of the planes will they be selling?

Hopefully not the bit that the taxpayer paid for TWICE. Fucking bailout. Pollies were only looking out for their lifetime perk of free/discounted travel. Cnuts.

[MisterD]

Solid Energy is an exporter, yes, but the only one and I don't think it's a particularly smart idea to bring private ownership in (in the medium and long term it would be expensive to NZ Inc).

Why? The government maintains control, SOE's get more scrutiny through being listed companies and we get to invest in companies that are about as solid as you can get.

As for the paucity of options on the NZX, do you think adding a few SOEs would be a solution? Your understanding of diversification is obviously a little flawed if that's all it would take to bring your money to NZ.

Oh-kay. Currently I have all my investment cash in the FTSE, I want to spread it around a bit more and I want to have some solid, low risk, low return stuff as part of the mix. I would like that part of the equation to be as close to home as possible. Capisch?

And I know of no commonly used definition that would call a school an investment asset.

It is for a country. I'm sure "investing in the next generation" is just the sort of platitude you'd love to trot out to in some discussion bashing Ann Tolley...

[Delerium]

It would have been nice if that cockhead Cullen hadn't emptied the bank account on a trainset and other bollocks, moments before being forced out of office.

and paying TWICE what it was worth.

[Clockwork]

Should of waited for the Aussies to give the thing back and buggered off back across the ditch.[/SIZE]

Or rip up the tracks and sell everything off for its scrap value?

[Oscar]

A few thoughts...


The reason the family silver has to go is 'cause the family home is 100% mortgaged. ‎Now we can wank on about whose fault that is, but that won't pay a cent of interest.‎

My understanding is that the Govt. will keep a controlling share in the assets ‎concerned.‎ This will reduce the return, but allow control of strategic industries - a reasonable compromise?

Those that harp on about the dividends that would flow overseas from these sales ‎‎(assuming that they go to overseas buyers) are conveniently ignoring the amount of ‎interest paid by the Govt on overseas borrowing. ‎

There is also a tendancy amongst us to compare NZ with overseas countries and wail about our inability to keep up. The comparison is somewhat silly - Australia merely digs wealth out of the ground, yet we refuse to even prospect (another subject to argue, but you can't have it both ways). Most of the other nations in the OECD don't have nationalised airways, power or infrastructure utilities.

I guess the thing is we can't have it both ways - our little South Pacific No Nuke Clean Green Social Engineering Paradise is expensive, and nobody wants to pay...

[Scuba_Steve]

My understanding is that the Govt. will keep a controlling share in the assets ‎concerned.‎

... For now

[Oscar]

... For now

Or you could sell them all at once, for next to nothing like Labour did.

[NinjaNanna]

Personally I see it as good sound investing and Key and Co should be proud of it.

At a very basic level, the Government sell excess shares in key companies then use the funds raised to purchase controlling shares in other key assets that are critical to the national interests.

Tell me what part of that is bad? To me it's simple invest diversifacation.

Put simply why would you want to own 100% of your aging power company for example but 0% of your brand new broadband company, when for near enough to the same capital outlay you could control both!


But why do we need to do this at all, why can't we own 100% of both companies? Well that's because Kiwi's have developed a false sense of wealth, primarily this was brought about by 2 income families, all of a sudden households felt rich, but instead of investing in productive assets they went on stupid bidding wars for residential realestate, but still using borrowed money instead of savings. This spiraled because more people felt rich because their property value had now doubled for no other reason than people had more money to spend.

The grim, dark reality though is that Kiwi's (and most of the western world) have pissed their personal household wealth (generated by a second income) against the wall, they are now tied to huge mortgages against properties that in reality should only be worth half of what they owe.

And to cap this all off our household earning potentials have pretty much peaked, unless of course we start working 6 day weeks or 12hr days. Either that or increase the size of our households, ie Kids and grandkids continue to live at home and contribute to the household income.

The glorry days are over people, the banks used your greed and self pride against you (did you really need the extra bedrooms +study +ensuite +3rd bathroom +double lock up garage + 50" LCD TV +++), they now own you and every cent of your disposable income for the next 25-30 yrs. Of course there is an out and thats downsizing your expectations but the penalty will be the financial loss incurred in selling.

Woops bit of a rant, but I'm done now.

[avgas]

Yes Aussie....

Its funny as everyone says that......but I was living in Aussie in 2008/2009. Right smack in the middle of recession and I can openly say that the economy and markets there are some of the most unstable in the world.

When Bluescope announced they had lost a deal with china, the dollar lost 15 cents. Yet the next day everything was fine.....

Likewise watch the markets now......they will vibrate for the next six months why the damage is evaluated in Qld.... the dollar will increase for no reason at all..... the GDP will show random figures.....

Makes Kenya seem like a safe bet.

[Scuba_Steve]

Or you could sell them all at once, for next to nothing like Labour did.

yea da party thing don't work with me. I hate both parties & I don't care who's doing it, selling SOE's should not be done especially not criminal like Police, courts, prisons, medical like ACC, Ambo's, hospitals or infrastructure