“..Watchy as they sink under the 30 point mark at the next poll with JK and the Nats hitting 55 points”

um..!..gd..!

..http://whoar.co.nz/2008/nationals-lead-over-labour-is-halved/

(heh..!..)

phil(whoar.co.nz)

http://nzdebate.blogspot.com/2008/03/consumer-confidence-at-10-year-low.html

“bursting of the dot com bubble or the economic woes in the US after 9/11.”

As I recall the US economy sprang back pretty shortly after those events, so it’s little wonder that people are more worried about the sub-prime crisis – which has been heavily reported on now for many months, and has well and truly gone international.

“Sentiment in NZ does not automatically move in tandem with overseas events. The cumulative effect of rising domestic interest rates, the turning of the local housing market and rising fuel costs”

But we import 80% of our fossil fuels. That is an “overseas event” that has become domestic. I do agree however that Labour seems to have done little to expand the supply of residential land, which would have mitigated a lot of drastic rise in housing prices, which have in turn added to inflationary pressures, and consequently higher interest rates. But as I understand it, a lot of the problem lies with zoning restrictions put in place by local councils, that are often stacked with property developers who don’t want to see the value of their existing capital plummet. So my question is, would the National party go all “nanny state” and reduce the autonomy of the local councils, whilst doing harm to their financial backers in order to fix this problem? I certainly have my doubts.

“The Herald reports that the Westpac consumer confidence index has it a 10 year low at 96.5. The previous low was 94.2 in June 1998.”

oh, funny that. Consumer confidence is low when our one or more of our trading partners is experiencing economic crisis (1998 -asian economic crisis.

LeeC:

“Looks like the dip is coming a year too early for Labour under Cullen/Clark. Oh dear. No one to blame but themselves.”

Yep, everything that’s wrong in your life is helen clark’s fault Lee.

Watchy as they sink under the 30 point mark at the next poll with JK and the Nats hitting 55 points. Greens hovering around point of destruction Luigi under it. It can only get worse for the Socialists Why am I smiling

I would rather listen to someone who had “proper” job experience than one who has done nothing but sup off the public tax tit all his life.

Or is my economic understanding as good a cullens – zilch. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt my feelings if I’m completely off base.

I note that Sullen said about two weeks ago the drought would cost NZ about 1 billion, this week he is saying that it will probably be 2.3 billion. I would say that if the final figure is only 2.3 billion then we are getting off lightly. The socialist grasshoppers are about to see what a long hot summer really means. As for tax cuts forget it, you have to take tax to cut it and Mr Sullens piggy bank is shrinking.

A $175 million windfall in power company profits could help the Government buy back the national rail service.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen said yesterday the special dividend from Meridian Energy would be used for capital purposes – potentially the purchase of the rail and Cook Strait ferry operations of Toll New Zealand.

The state-owned company announced the dividend on top of a $60.9 million interim dividend.

[Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10500100 ]

http://whoar.co.nz/2008/there-is-a-new-international-virusit-is-calledfear-of-lending/

(b.t.w..those getting ‘over-exuberent over that little ‘rise’/'recovery on wall st..

should know that is called ‘a dead-cat-bounce’..)

phil(whoar.co.nz)

http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-bad-news-for-government.html