jfred, I'm finding the shock to the economy is a good thing, not a bad thing. I can now drive much more freely around Auckland and the countryside.
People who don't have enough money to drive as they like are [probabilistically] the same people who are poor drivers, causing delays, congestion and accidents. What's more, they cause those problems for little economic benefit, impeding people who have got valuable things to do by driving. Admittedly I just made that theory up, but it looks excellent. I haven't got the data yet to quantify the effect.
<The American consumer will have to limit buying to what is earned, which will create a major shock to psyches here and will certainly slow down the economy.>
If the American consumer isn't buying, that leaves more for the rest of us to buy. That means the sellers will have to cut their prices to sell all their stock. That's also a good thing. Some of the items won't be economic to produce now, so that will shift production to things which are worth producing.
It's an ill wind that blows nobody good. Every cloud has a silver lining.
Meanwhile, when I calculate the infamous indebtedness, it's a major problem for those concerned [borrower and lender both] but not overall. The proportion of houses in mortgagee sales is still only 1%. 1% of people die in car accidents, murder, suicide, bad luck generally. I doubt that houses will be so cheap that I buy a holiday home in sunny California or Hawaii.
Mqurice
PS: Meanwhile, a girl called Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii has been removed from parental care: news.bbc.co.uk Hopefully there's more to the matter than such trivia. The state is a seriously annoying pain in the neck in New Zealand these days. They are the greatest threat to life, liberty,the pursuit of happiness, and hula girls. |
