7th October 2008

The Property Developer market has melted down. Why? Because it was based on the philosophy of borrow and spend. None of the developers used their own money, it was all borrowed from finance companies and banks and built on a house of cards. Finally someone removed a key card from the bottom and it's all fallen in a heap. The Share market appears to be heading the same way and it's interesting that the price of crude oil has dropped back to reflect more the true cost of extracting it now the speculators can't borrow money to inflate the price.

I was ready to vote for the National Govt a few months ago, being sick of the "nanny knows best" patronizing Labour Govt coalition we've endured over the past 9 years.
National is touting a fresh new line-up, but apart from John Key, the same tired faces such as English, Brownlee,Williamson, McCully, Smith, Ryall, Carter, Mapp will all form the basis of a National cabinet and unfortunately memories are short as to why they were turfed out in 1999.

The biggest disincentive to voting National is that even before coming to power they cannot demonstrate that they can think on their feet and adapt to rapidly changing situations. Just this morning Bill English was droning the mantra of tax cuts and that this was the only way to increase productivity. Treasury figures show that the country will have to borrow well into the future to fund tax cuts, thus the National party are using the Property Developer approach to running the country. I 'm not so sure that Cullen is the financial guru he'd like to think he is, but the prudent approach he advocates right now makes more sense to me and I'd rather trust him than Bill English. You can only live beyond your means until someone finds you out. The actions of the finance world are no better than pyramid schemes and when it all comes tumbling down the ones who suffer are the hard grafting general populace who lose everything they have spent their lives accumulating. The National party philosophy seems to mirror those that have caused the present mayhem which has caused my re-think on who to vote for.

TC