Good to see our finance minister has such great oversight of the budget.  A $373 million surplus becomes over $570 million deficit, that's only a billion dollars or so out -near enough apparently as he still has a job.

KikBac wrote: So what's your solution Kevin? Vote for one of the Parties that promised to print more money? Yep that should do the trick

Southern_jez that's what thought too.no. Gst or income tax.save money pay no tax buy food etc pay tax then @ 25% hang on isn't what Mama party proposed about 5/6 yrs ago?

Southern_Jez wrote: pjc wrote: Southern_jez that's what thought too.no. Gst or income tax.save money pay no tax buy food etc pay tax then @ 25% hang on isn't what Mama party proposed about 5/6 yrs ago? Sorry I dont quite follow what you are saying ... the Big Kahuna retains GST at the current rate, and it suggests a flat income tax of 30% on every dollar earned ... nothing like the mana plan ...

I think i would prefer the mana way,garth morgan well?anyway just heard on the news tax cuts possible by 2017 and should be back in surplus

While printing money probably wouldn't have worked for us, it's the same policy that that well-known communist country known as the USA is still following. So allowing the reserve bank to do so *if they think it necessary* is not as wacky as it sounds, and is actually pretty much in line with basic economic theory. Just saying.

SaltyC wrote: Hmm, don't let the facts get in the way folks, but the forecasts are done by Treasury not National or any other political party. So Treasury got the income forecast wrong and National now has to deal with the results.

Auckland prices are no reason for concern  Westpac C.E.O David Mclean said today

Well well. Today i popped into an Auction in Mt Riskill .Woops i mean Mt Roskill. On the flat lands on the Balmoral side. Good size 4 bed 1920s Bungalow on 816 sq M. Potentially sub dividable . This property didnt sell & was  turned in at $1.3 million at Auction 3 months ago.
Today it sold for $1.730 Million. Thats a massive upswing in 3 months. No cause for concern.?
Here below are snippets from an article---on  www.maxkeiser.com.

So  not only here in Auckland. Keynesian central bank craziness is causing insane asset bubbles in real estate.
You can buy a very nice penthouse in Monaco for $400 million. But if thats out of your range ,dont worry all the other units in the building are an affordable $100 Million.

Property bubbles are popping up all over the place after 7 years of money printing.
Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New york, Vancouver, London are just a few places you can barely buy a small bachelor pad for under 1 million.,but you can still buy a 1 bedroom ,1 bathroom pad in San Francisco for $929 K

A person who 15 years ago owned a million dollar house was considered very well off. Now in many places he would be known as the super broke guy who lives in a shack down by the pawn shop.
What is going on. Central banks have been printing money at record rates for 7 years while manipulating interest rates to not only near zero like in the U.S but to negative rates in Germany and Sweden. Negative interest.! You pay someone to borrow your money. Yes its that crazy now. Keynesianism is reaching its ultimate end game.
So who had profited from this printing. Specifically the top 0.1%
Woops. This should have been posted in the Key denies housing bubble thread.