39 Comments
Apr 3Liked by Bernard Hickey

I want to know who are these 'professional investors' who 'invested' in the DMO bonds

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Apr 3Liked by Bernard Hickey

Your kiwisaver fund for starters. Other investors looking to diversify their exposure to risky assets such as shares. ETc

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Apr 4Liked by Bernard Hickey

Thanks DavidM. I can understand KiwiSaver but who are the ‘other investors’?

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Apr 4Liked by Bernard Hickey

Potentially sovereign wealth funds. The Norwegian fund tends to invest in more secure things, they’re one of the biggest share holders in the Aussie banks for example.

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Other investment funds that purchase sovereign (i.e govt) debt, and then make this available as an investment opportunity for folk who want a secure regular income for retirement.

Think of it as being like a very long term bank term deposit.

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Okay but wouldn’t a better way be for everybody to have a ‘a long term bank deposit’ with the Reserve Bank and do away with the banks. That would solve the problem of bank collapses. I haven’t read the following yet but Yanis Varoufakis book ‘another Now’ talks about this.

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Yes, I've read his book. You're thinking more around the issues of fractional reserve banking and money creation by private banks.

By way of comparison govt issued debt is more controlled and ideally should be used for infrastructure investment subject to available capacity in the economy.

My frustration is that these concepts are not widely discussed, leaving the person in the street susceptible to thinking the neolib orthodoxy is the only way forward.

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Apr 4·edited Apr 4

it is absolutely essential that the New Zealand government is the only body/entity that can expand New Zealand's money supply.

monies required by the banks would have to be loaned from the New Zealand government.

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Apr 3·edited Apr 3Liked by Bernard Hickey

yes open it please! (I want to send it to my kids) Now as stated in comments before, how come greens and labour are not using your explanations and clear evidence like that the bond demand is so strong that Treasury decided to issue $4.5 billion, which was just below the $5 billion cap for the auction, to nail Ministers Willis and Luxon agaist the walls of the debating chamber for lying to the country... is beyond me...

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Apr 4·edited Apr 4Liked by Bernard Hickey

Exactly, as an ex Green candidate I'm annoyed that there seems to be a lack of basic fiscal literacy in the Green Caucus.

And also the media are bloody clueless - the "business news" on RNZ is just parroting of house price mania, and reflections of what the NZX and currency did today. There is no attempt to see through the lies and spin of this deceptive govt and to help people understand the true situation.

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I'll vote @bernard if he stands for the greens!

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At the risk of doing a David Cunliffe I just want to apologise for men 50+ (yes that’s me) who think that this government is on the right track - I’m so embarrassed at their greed and ignorance.

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I'm in the same camp as you

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As somebody who passed that 23 years ago I agree.....

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Apr 4Liked by Bernard Hickey

I remember being locked down in Auckland in 2021 and Chippy saying Aucklanders might need a licence to leave for the summer. The visceral reaction to that and that we’re back at these visceral levels again but no change in support for the current government!? It can only speak to biases like confirmation and a suite of others.

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Lags to watch

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I just heard Simeon Browns announcement requirement that all councils that created Maori wards without a referendum now must hold one and I felt sick to the stomach. Is he competing with David Seymour to be the first nz politician to be a martyr ?

Does it mean that all councils that have area wards will have to have a referendum for them as well?

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But won't that cost money and isn't this government about being fically responsible? I guess it won't matter as much as it's another directive to local councils to sort their sh*t out

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Yep, the referenda will be hugely expensive. Normally representation reviews (for area wards) are bad enough. If nothing else, I would have thought that referenda on Māori wards should clearly identify how many people on the Māori roll are for/against, and how many on the general roll. If it's just a straight poll, the data are too imprecise for a good debate on local views.

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Can I put a fast track application in for joined up cycleways in towns and cities across the country? I don't even want to repave. I reckon 1million bucks for planter boxes should do it. The cost-benefit will be outstanding! Who else wants to ask for something we actually need not a bunch of high emissions vanity projects?

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I love the solar panels as a garden fence idea. We need to replace our roof before we can get solar panels installed which is costly, but installing a fence would be much easier!

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Regarding the gender divide. Men of all ages tend to spend more time in right wing spaces online, women the opposite. There’s a bit of research coming out about it. So it’s not surprising that their perception of this right wing government is polling the way it is.

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Given that the majority of NZ'ers now think we're heading in the wrong direction (while we're "getting NZ back on track"!), it's fascinating there's not been increased support for Opposition parties. What this tells me is that Labour and the Greens in particular are still not showing a credible alternative to the Coalition Government. It should be like shooting fish in a barrel and yet.....

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What's the bet that supporters of each coalition party think it's the other two that are making a hash of things?

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The word "Confidence" is, in these challenging times, far too often followed by the (rarely written but oft inferred) word "Trick" :-(

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The US companies for which CEO to average worker pay is being compared will be much larger than those in New Zealand (and that would normally justify higher levels of CEO pay).

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1 border collie equals 1 "like"

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Hi Bernard - you mentioned that the letter to Judith Collins was (see below) but it wasn't there, can you drop a link here somewhere

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True to his word, Luxon & Co. is putting the country on what he believes is the right track. But it turns out the track is actually a four lane motorway and the train is a big SUV. If he bothered look beside or behind him, he would see that he has no passengers. But he’s in the driver’s seat, which is probably all he ever wanted. Works for him.

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Fantastic! We got over 100 likes! I'm opening it up for public reading, listening and sharing. Share away!

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Apr 4·edited Apr 4

New Zealand 2023 election

3,850,100 people eligible to enroll to vote

3,646,050 people enrolled to vote

2,851,211 valid votes cast

therefore fewer/less than 75 percent of New Zealanders eligible to enroll made a valid vote

1,505 877 people voted for the current government

that is far fewer/less than half of the people who enrolled to vote

should the number of votes for the parties who become the government be at least 50 percent of the number of people eligible to enroll (ie for 2023 1,925,050 votes)?

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