News review
A gloating Guyon Espiner on TV One's midday news reckons he's sunk Winston. He knew something about Owen Glenn. I wasn't really listening. I suspect his prime audience of former voters aren't either.TV3 had their news in the middle of an English arsehole inspection with some story about London radio DJs being vacuous arseholes and on switching back to One's bulletin Paris Hilton was saying that "Tinkerbell [her dog as I understand it] did..." something - and then I had to turn off. Off.
If our dollar keeps dropping or remains where it is (and it probably went through something of a psychological barrier the other day), and if our real estate prices keep falling the foreign investors will clean us out over the long-term; or should I say clean us out again. They will wipe the cupboard bare and we will be paying them rent forever. As I understand it someone sitting on the internet in Istanbul or Oslo or wherever can buy freehold title and shares in practically anything we currently own. We can't afford to buy it - not right now. They can. They want safe havens and stores of value at the moment - doesn't that describe most classes of New Zealand land, buildings and infrastructure? We had the Canadians walking over hot coals to get to the Auckland International Airport.
National will open the doors to foreign investment and the private-public model Labour set up will actually be advanced in practice.
Labour will make a compromised and hypocritical, but pragmatic, decision about how far the door should be left open.
NZ first will shut them. Shut them out or buy them out. A more Singaporean type model.
It's these issues that actually put Winston to the left of Labour on many economic policies. Cullen, according to Winston on last night's interview, has been nevertheless, sound. A sound steward of the Rogernomics model?
[UPDATE: 2:10PM:
The 2008 NZ Official Yearbook is launched by the statistics department: What was its original purpose?
Cost: $100.]
posted by Tim Selwyn @ 12:03 pm
5 comments
5 Comments:
Green Party policy is to be an NZ citizen or resident in order to own land. That would stop land price inflation due to what is in effect forex speculation backed by property.
I wonder who else would support that idea - apart from the Maori Party. Winston might.
Leasing arrangements would need to be legislated also. The foreign property investment market would be heavily impacted (certainly for prospective immigrants to the country). There would still be a strong market for whatever the maximum legal lease tenure is. I think in the Cooks it might be between 30 and 50 years. I suppose there would also be a market for immigrants to use NZ citizens as trustees to hold property for them while they get their citizenship.
So what you're saying to the hundreds of thousands of kiwis who have their retirement nestegg in property to suck it up and accept living in poverty for their old age.
Do you realistically think the reasonable man will vote for something like this?
Is your "reasonable man" someone with property and rentals or someone who can't afford to buy at current prices?
Poverty, really? It would be a change of policy from advantaging those who have property now to advantaging those who don't but would one day, before they die, like to own the house they live in. I doubt the prices would settle at a level - or would affect rentals - that would cause the landlords to go into poverty. It would probably stabilise prices - and dampen the sudden upwards valuations we have seen recently.
Que compliment. - Really good post. In fact really good posts all round lately. Keep it up.
Post a Comment
<< Home