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Posted at 8:18AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

From what I've heard on Good Morning this morning it seems like Standard and Poors have had played a large part in the makeup of this weeks budget. They even get a look at the final draft before anyone else. Do they own the country now?

Posted at 8:36AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

From what I've heard on Good Morning this morning it seems like Standard and Poors have had played a large part in the make up of this weeks budget. They even get a look at the final draft before anyone else.

Why am I not surprised? Actually wouldn't be surprised if they are behind other solutions for this government seeing as their credit rating must be excellent.

Posted at 9:11AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

'Right team, here's the name for our new credit-rating agency'

'Hmmm - I'm a little worried that one day we may be complicit in enabling a world-wide financial crisis, and this name may somehow be used as the basis of an embarrassing play on words. Perhaps we should run it through some sort of basic anagram-checker'

Pause.

'Nah..."

Posted at 9:27AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

From what I've heard on Good Morning this morning it seems like Standard and Poors have had played a large part in the makeup of this weeks budget. They even get a look at the final draft before anyone else. Do they own the country now?

Apparently they're now trying to run Ireland.

Posted at 9:29AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Perhaps now we can start talking about growth engines that actually work.

And don't cost anything.

Posted at 9:32AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

It was founded in 1860 by Henry Varnum Poor

The name has an apostrophe. They're just journalists, basically. I'm not sure what the legality is of giving them enhanced access to unpublished information over say, the NZ Herald, or Public Address.

Posted at 10:00AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Call me a self interested money-grabber....

I just finally got around to joining KiwiSaver last week, because my budget prediction is bye-bye to the $1000 sign-up incentive.

Plus, you know, I really should have some long-term savings- it's only prudent, if you can afford to...

Posted at 10:04AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

And Mr Key's "NZ has a growth problem, not a debt problem" has been conveniently overlooked by the usual suspects.

Posted at 10:20AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

because my budget prediction is bye-bye to the $1000 sign-up incentive.

I would hope not. The sign-up numbers have been huge to date, so the number of people still out there to signup to recieve that $1000 is relatively small - it would make relatively little annual impact I should think. (On the flip, I suppose new people entering the work force is an ongoing occurence).

Geez, if they water down Kiwisaver even more I'll... I'll... write a sternly worded blog post somewhere! Our rating is under threat mainly because of our private current account deficit (NOT Govt debt) and deepening private local savings is one obvious way to fix that.

Posted at 10:23AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

NZ a division of McGraw-Hill?

Do they own the country now?

follow the bouncing ball kids...

Capital IQ says:

"Our offering has become an essential part of the workflow for many financial professionals at the leading investment banks, investment managers, and private equity firms in North America. We see tremendous opportunities for additional growth around the world, particularly in Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and the greater Asia-Pacific region," said Randall Winn, Managing Director of Capital IQ.

and Capital IQ is a division of Standard & Poors
and S&P is a division of McGraw-Hill
publishers of Business Week and mega-providers of basic educational texts and Global Corporate information in many crucial areas ...
- And they get first look at OUR budget??

and some were worried about the NZ Stock Exchange owning business mags... Hell let's ask Rupert Murdoch for advice as well...

yrs J. Jonah Jamieson
and tell Parker to get more
photos of Spider-man hanging
around the Beehive...

Posted at 10:28AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

You want growth Mr English? you need R&D, you need start up companies, 100s of new ones each year, that means you need VC investment money sloshing around - our problem in NZ is that compared to everywhere else real estate is too good an investment - almost everywhere else in the world has capital gains taxes - and as a result can offer tax breaks to long term investors.

For example in NZ "capital gains tax" as an issue means more taxes while in the US "capital gains tax" means smaller taxes (at least smaller than income tax rates)

Posted at 11:18AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Do they own the country?

No not quite - they own the agency that tells the people who do own the country whether it's time to sell the country off to the lowest er highest bidder.

Essentially the guys who have lent NZ billions of dollars own most of the country in the same way most people own a little bit of their home and the bank owns the rest.

If you decide to give up your job and spend your time surfing the web instead of paying your mortgage the bank will ask you to get a job or move out of their house. The same is true of international lenders except they use S&P to let them know if a country has gone batshit crazy.

So frankly S&P acting as the proxy for the international lenders and telling JK that he can't give his cronies a tax break is really kind of a good thing. Especially because you know damn well the only people gonna benefit from JK version of tax cut/growth incentive are gonna be his neighbours in Parnell.

Posted at 11:26AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Well Rod Oram seems to disagree that there's a problem and points out there are two other agencies who don't seem to have a problem with us...

Discrediting the credit rating threats

Posted at 11:34AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Well Rod Oram seems to disagree that there's a problem

But he did just say on RNZ that it was outrageous that S&P get to look at the budget 2 days ahead of everyone else -
I'm guessing Moodys et al were not afforded the same "courtesy"...

yrs
Humphrey Dumpty
Pullet Surprise winner

Posted at 11:59AM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Tight new security to stop leaks

Unprecedented security surrounds the release of Thursday's Budget amid fears that the details of a massive market-sensitive borrowing programme will be leaked.

As the Government racks up a mountain of debt, with big implications for interest rates and the dollar, the Treasury has introduced tough restrictions on who can get early access to Budget details.

Meanwhile, the government's chosen insiders - Standard and Poors - will be able to make those insider trades on foreign markets beyond our legal reach and rake in the cash.

Posted at 12:02PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

because my budget prediction is bye-bye to the $1000 sign-up incentive.

I would hope not. The sign-up numbers have been huge to date, so the number of people still out there to signup to recieve that $1000 is relatively small - it would make relatively little annual impact I should think.

I agree that the actual savings would not be huge, but more of a "look, see, we are cutting non essential spending" headline grabber without too much political fall-out (as many people have already joined and it wont affect them). Anyone starting new employment gets joined automatically and has to opt out.... just the fact you have do do something to get out means the incentive is less needed in that situation anyway.

Anyway, its just a wild-arsed guess from someone with no inside knowledge. It just seems too easy with little political 'cost'

Posted at 12:22PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Cutting more out of Kiwisaver has a possible risk to political capital though - "Messing with your future super", "Putting our problems onto our grandkids" etc...
And you don't really free up much cash (I'm presuming here).

I reckon, cut all the Govt contributions, make it compulsory at 4% (which is the same in the medium-term as the 2+2 we now have given that the "employers" 2% comes out of your wages anyway) and give the funds highly attractive tax levels (15% odd). But that may have to wait for rosier personal times

Posted at 12:40PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Cutting the government contribution to kiwisaver would save far more govt expenditure (short term), but as you say, would have far greater affects politically, and on the future of the country... I dont forsee it happening this budget. But if things really keep getting worse in the future, it might "have to be done, even though we dont want to".

Posted at 1:09PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

The sign-up numbers have been huge to date

On a slight side-note, but does anyone remember the chortling from certain quarters (coughtheheraldcough) when take-up numbers were percieved to be slow just after introduction.

My memory is of a few stories along the lines of: 'oh look its been available for 1/2 hr and only three people have signed up! What a silly granny labour scheme it is!'

Can anyone confirm that this isn't just my neural implants playing up again?

Posted at 1:27PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

If the world recession gets deeper and longer, expect English to start thinking about selling government commercial enterprises to pay back debt. I do wonder if the economic hit men are circling.

Posted at 1:28PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Hi Rich.

This from the Herald 28 July:

Lots of interest but low uptake for KiwiSaver

Providers blame slow start on apathy and uncertainty about future of scheme if National Party wins general election

Uncertainty, confusion and just plain apathy are being blamed for an apparently slower than expected uptake of the new retirement saving scheme, KiwiSaver.

A Weekend Herald survey of 17 KiwiSaver providers four weeks after the scheme started on July 1 has found that they have been swamped with inquiries, but the numbers actually signing up are being counted only in the hundreds and thousands out of an eligible workforce of two million.

Posted at 1:31PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Well, if National's keen on saving money, they could start by doing everything possible to encourage the public sector to drop Microsoft products, in light of failed negotiations with the SSC for an all-of-government discount. Quite why we persist in sending so much bloody money into the coffers of a foreign company when there are cheaper, viable alternatives is rather beyond me. But I guess that wasting money in support of capitalism ranks ahead of real savings that go to support some commie notion of open systems.

Posted at 1:42PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

If the world recession gets deeper and longer, expect English to start thinking about selling government commercial enterprises to pay back debt.

You've just bought TVNZ for an excellent price. Now to business. What do you chuck overboard?

Posted at 2:45PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

they use S&P to let them know if a country has gone batshit crazy

anyone who thinks that S&P is a credible source of creditworthiness information is "batshit crazy".

S&P, et al, are the banksters' bagmen. they facilitated the CDF and MBS meltdown (pyramid scam), which has subsequently seen a massive consolidation in the financial sector favouring a select few Wall St. firms, and the dishing out of $trillions of central bank/treasury money to said banksters.

.....

"Hello, S&P? We want to sell this tranche of mortgage-backed securities with zero chance of the underlying assets remaining sound. Can you give them AAA+? Great, thanks. Those Norwegian village councillors will be over the moon with such a great investment!"

Posted at 2:54PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

drop Microsoft products

I have OpenOffice at home. It's by no means equivalent to MS Office - maybe 75%, with no features that MS don't provide that I've been able to find. As soon as I can find some sort of semi-hookey MS license, I'm going back to MS.

I reckon if you started giving your average government admin person a Ubuntu/OpenOffice desktop, then you'd be in for a good 2 weeks retraining time at a cost of several grand. That doesn't seem a very good deal to me.

Or are you suggesting giving every government worker a Mac?

Or going back to pencil and paper?

Posted at 3:01PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

A Weekend Herald survey..

In the real world, over a 1 million people (out of that 2 million) are now signed up to Kiwisaver. 66% of those opted in when changing jobs choose to stay in, so one could see this figure climbing to 1.4mln, were it not for NACTs sabotage of the scheme.

I think basically, everything you read in the NZ Herald / Dom Post can be regarded as at best tangential to the truth unless independently confirmed.

Posted at 3:02PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Oh, have the reference for that

Posted at 4:18PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Can I just point out, that part of that "sabotage" included making it so I could afford to join?

I dont like all their changes, and I'm hardly a Nat supporter, but the drop from 4% minimum to 2% means I could actually join.

I'd be interested to see if there's any stats yet on uptake since that change...

Posted at 5:19PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

Hi Rich.

This from the Herald 28 July:

Yep, that's the sort of thing. Although in my far from perfect recall, there were a few more bits around the same time - editorials, columnists fulminating, etc. Although it was possibly only Garth George grumping on about how round here in his day it were all fields.

Posted at 5:53PM on 26 May 09. Permalink.

I have OpenOffice at home. It's by no means equivalent to MS Office - maybe 75%, with no features that MS don't provide that I've been able to find. As soon as I can find some sort of semi-hookey MS license, I'm going back to MS.

Open Office runs on Windows too, as well you know and I would be surprised if your 75% figure is anywhere near accurate. Open Office will save documents in formats that can be read by Microsoft Office or any other Office application. In terms of saving the country money I don't think "some sort of semi-hookey MS license" is an option I would like to see our Govt. adopt.