The above heading quoted from the New Zealand Herald's BusinessHerald lead article (6 July 2011) just highlights what an absolute mess New Zealand's economic & financial system is in (let's include the world).
It's obviously a no win situation - we've had no confidence, no growth, no jobs, no pay increases (so depressing), low interest rates (that part is good) and that's given us lower inflation, and now a climb in confidence, a robust recovery, more jobs, higher pay (so exciting ... not for long), higher prices, higher interest rates (and that is not so good) and that gives us higher inflation.
If you've been reading newspapers ( hard copy & online) as long as I have, you'd see that nothing has changed in the world of economics, finance and politics. The problems are the same. The small array of solutions that are offered are the same and as each so called solution is implemented the results are the same ... we all get older and collectively deeper in debt.
New Zealand's Central Reserve Bank is STATE owned. Despite that, instead of being used for the benefit of its owners, the people of New Zealand, successive Governments have: Allowed the foreign-owned trading banks to create and issue nearly all of the nation's money supply and claim it as their own. Notes and coins make up less than three percent of the money in circulation. Ninety seven percent of our money supply is on loan to us at interest from those banks. Actively encouraged banks to charge "rental" for this money at some of the highest interest rates in the developed world. Used high interest rates as a blunt lever to control inflation, while agreeing to exclude the resultant costs from the Price Index, so that their cost-inflationary effects do not allow pensions and awards to compensate for these. Deliberately used interest rate fluctuations to maintain an unemployed "pool" of about four percent of the workforce in order to hold down wage rates. Fa...
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