About Myself
It does not matter who I am; I am not much different to most other people on the planet. After school in the UK I decided to take a year out before entering university. I got a job in a steel factory and one year turned to two, then three, until six. Money talks. I became qualified in various areas and enjoyed life: cars, motorcycles, and so on. Then came Thatcher's restructuring. I never joined the union as I had seen how they operated. They said they couldn't protect me - well, to be fair, I always had the university option, so from the sidelines I just watched them destroy themselves. If I had needed any protection it was against them. Thatcher beat them with craft - from the inside out - and the entire industry from mining to steel was destroyed. Entire towns in the North were devastated, yet the South barely noticed. Northern British industry was replaced with what they called a service economy and everyone knew things were not quite right. My father, an ex-city Councillor and staunch Conservative, advised me 20 plus years ago that no one in my generation would receive a pension worthy of the name. So, end of steel, off to college and university.
One thing I learned in the steel industry was that the health of any company can be instantly ascertained by simply looking at the order book. Prior to the 1997 Asian crash I happened to be working part-time in a Korean company that sold wheels to KIA Motors - and KIA failed to pay; one month later KIA defaulted - inside info gave me the heads up. Shortly after, Korea had to borrow $5b from the IMF, and they paid back within four years. Think again, it took a mega economy like South Korea's four years to pay back $5billion. Now, in 2009, billions borrowed have turned to trillions, and so it continues into 2010 and beyond. To any rational mind, such numbers are impossible to repay.
Since coming to New Zealand in early 2006 I have counted about 25 financial companies go under and I recently spied a report that put the number closer to 40. In October 2009 we received the news that New Zealand was $10 billion in the red. If it took 45 million hard working South Koreans 4 years to pay back $5 billion, how long will it take 4 million Kiwis to pay back $10 billion? It is not going to happen and the only way out will be though inflation - the money printing press.
Trouble is brewing even here but NZ is a pretty safe bet. If America crashes NZ will be affected, but will recover in time. New Zealand has a small population, lots of cows, sheep, fish, etc., and lots of land. With a little design, it could become the Switzerland of the southern hemisphere.