New Zealand Panics
This is stagflation on steroids
Fundamentally, New Zealand is F789ed. The ‘safe haven country for billionaires’ is running out of affordable energy and de-industrializing. Their economy has been mired in recession for the past two years and debt is spiraling out of control.
And today the NZ Central Bank has officially gone into full panic mode:
Reserve Bank of New Zealand slashes interest rates again, by 50 basis points to 4.75 per cent
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has cut its official cash rate by 50 basis points, following a 25-basis-point decrease in August, flagging concerns about subdued economic activity, weak business investment and consumer spending.
The recent moves by the RBNZ represent a stark change from earlier in the year, when it flagged further hikes.
What's next?
Further interest cuts are expected, with some economists forecasting another 50 basis point move late next month. The RBNZ will be closely watching inflation data due out in late October and jobs figures released in early November.
Bleak Picture of the Financial State of Many Households
New Zealand households spent more than they earned in the June quarter, lost a combined $47 billion in net worth and were servicing home loan interest costs at the highest level in at least a decade. Stats NZ’s latest household spending data paints a bleak picture of the financial state of many households. It shows that households spent $479 million more than their disposable income in the quarter.
The Government’s books sank further into the red in the year to June, partly thanks to higher personnel costs at Health New Zealand and soaring Accident Compensation Corporate (ACC) claims costs.
The Government’s operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) deficit deepened by $3.4 billion in 2023/24 compared to the previous year, to $12.9b.
It was also $1.8b worse than the Treasury forecast at the Budget in May.
“These are sobering numbers,” Finance Minister Nicola Willis said.
“We need to tidy them up and we need to impose restraint.”
‘If you want summer, get vaccinated’ – Jacinda Ardern sets the target for re-opening New Zealand
As we can see Covid Vaccine Injuries have resulted in out of control health costs. ACC is where one makes a claim if one can no longer work because of a severe injury, including those caused by vaccines.
Expect this to worsen as another booster is coming (and the Barnyard Animals will be clamouring for it).
"The JN.1 boosters that hopefully we'll have soon will be really important for protection in our country and we want really high levels of uptake." Source
The China ‘Solution’
Why doesn’t the Central Bank follow the lead of China and rescue the economy by shoveling enormous amounts of cash into the maws of financial brokerages with implicit instructions to use the money to bid up the stock market?
Oh right…
China’s Cocaine Rally Needs Another Line
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index plunges 9.5% as investors dump shares
Shanghai Down 6.6% as China Stocks Plunge
We are entering the pushing on a string phase of this crisis that started at the turn of the century. Gargantuan stimulus floated all boats for two decades but now adding more will result in a Titanic moment. Reducing interest rates fixes nothing and instead will inflame inflation.
World crude oil extraction reached an all-time high of 84.6 million barrels per day in late 2018, and production hasn’t been able to regain that level since then. Source
3rd World status... imminent... of course this is compounded by the epic numbers of vaccine injured they have to treat + staff shortages due to injured medical staff + the departure of many who refused to take more shots after seeing the carnage:
A Northland emergency doctor says the health system is in a death spiral with woeful understaffing, budget constraints and leaky buildings – and the Government’s priorities are all wrong.
The Whangārei Hospital rebuild is officially in the red – meaning government officials have labelled it a project at significant risk due to insufficient funds.
It comes on the heels of the Dunedin Hospital rebuild facing significant budget cuts.
The Labour Government rubber-stamped a $750 million stage one revamp of Whangārei Hospital in 2022.
Whangārei Hospital had not been “fit for duty” for the past 15 to 20 years, he said, with clinicians saying it was “far too small”, and the ED the waiting room “lacks privacy and is unsafe”.
They had been reduced to treating patients in back hallways and corridors, “which had never been a thing in the 17 years I’ve been here”.
The corridor beds were designed for “overflow” situations but were now being used regularly because the emergency department was often up to 200% capacity.
“That means you’ve got 32 patients in all of the rooms, cubicles, seats in the department. Then you’ve got another 32 people in the waiting room ... [which] can’t accommodate anything like that.
“Then you’ve got ambulances coming in on top of that and those patients have to go somewhere, and so they go in a back corridor ... this is a new and depressing thing for us.”
Staff dreaded days when it rained in Northland, he said.
“It’s depressing and unnecessary. It’s inappropriate for a country like New Zealand to have a situation when it’s raining outside heavily, it’s raining inside as well, with water leaking through the ceiling tiles into the radiology department, captured in buckets.”
The leaks were putting expensive equipment such as CT scanners and an MRI machine at risk, he said.
“This is stuff that we are better than. It doesn’t have to be this way at all.”
Even equipment past its use-by date could not be replaced, with the entire Northern region now competing for the same healthcare budget.
Managers were “dejected”, he said, “because they know they’ll get one to zero of the 15 things they need. They’re worried because they work in these departments and they understand the problem”.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/northland-ed-doctor-gary-payinda-speaks-out-on-dire-state-of-whangarei-hospital/IMBR37HLMRCUHP3GD4CV7RJ6HU/
Like Brent Johnson has suggested in his "Milkshake theory" (which a lot of people dismiss,) it would nevertheless seem that NZ by having to lower its interest rates will result in capital flight to the country with the strongest currency RELATIVE to the others. For now, that still is the US, especially since it hangs on to the World Reserve Currency status, and many debts (Eurodollars) are denominated in US $, as China doesn't want the yuan /RMB to be it.
So yeah, it looks like NZ may be the first western country to tank, maybe England. But the US may very well be the last currency standing, (not that it deserves to) but like a black hole, after it has sucked up all the other worthless world fiat currencies, a world wide hyperinflationary supernova explosion will occur. Credit stops, the trucks stop running, the food stops getting delivered and then the civil wars will ignite. And the scariest part is the sheeple are too dumb to realize what is happening and will fail to prepare and organize. You need a community of like minded people to at least have a fighting chance. And even then,you'll never know who will rat you out.
We've been spoiled by the easy life afforded by fossil fuels, previous fertile soil, a younger educated demographic, some homogenity in a European race and culture etc. But now our normalcy bias is in for a very rude awakening. "We'll be fighting in the streets, with our children at our feet." Pete Townshend and the Who, in "Won't Get Fooled Again. Or, Mike and the Mechanics 1984 song "Silent Running on Dangerous Ground" or Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air."
"Hand out the arms and ammo. We're going to blast our way through here."
The productive middle class are carrying an enormous parasitic burden that is increasing. All the lawyers, bankers, politicians, moneychangersetc. All totally useless parasites that need to be eradictaed. Lynched out of their homes, yachts, bunkers, islands etc. No need for a "trial". Imagine, having a trial. How quaint!Tee hee. There is no rule of law anyway so why the pretense? Find them, drag them out and string them up. Like the Chinese coolie in the Sand Pebbles. No mercy.
Thank God I got my ass out of Asheville three years ago and am now on the NC coast. Am familiar with all of those towns that got wiped out.