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Eyes on US Fed; US jobless claims stay low; China gets temporary export boost; EU retail impresses, freight rates rise; UST 10yr at 4.35%; gold recovers some; oil stable; NZ$1 = 60.2 USc; TWI = 69

Economy / news
Eyes on US Fed; US jobless claims stay low; China gets temporary export boost; EU retail impresses, freight rates rise; UST 10yr at 4.35%; gold recovers some; oil stable; NZ$1 = 60.2 USc; TWI = 69
[updated]

Here's our summary of key economic events overnight that affect New Zealand with news with a special eye on unpredictable American policy instability. The Trump win unhinges many things, including the path for central bank rate cuts. The ones announced today may be the last until after the direction of US fiscal policy is revealed for certain.

In the shadow of the Trump election win, a range of billionaires are lining up key roles in his administration to extract payback for their support. It is all very unseemly, but should be no surprise. The current estimate is that just six of them have gained more than +US60 bln in the first day. And that will be just the start.

The US Fed is about to release the results of its November meetings. A -25 bps rate cut is anticipated (Update: confirmed), to 4.75%. It may be too soon to expect them to have assessed how they need to prepare for Trump 2.0 policies that are expected to swell the US Federal deficit in a significant way, and re-ignite serious inflation. Their options may be discussed more at their December 19 (NZT) meeting. And that will all be clouded by Trump's expectations of subservience, although he has few options to fire Powell who is safe in the role until mid-2026, and as a governor until 2028.

Meanwhile US initial jobless claims came in at 212,300 (actual) last week, almost exactly as expected. There are now 1.65 mln people on these benefits, almost exactly as it was in the same week a year ago and back to pre-pandemic levels even though the employed labour force is now +7.5 mln people larger than pre-pandemic. The US labour market remains unchanged, and stays strong .

China is getting an export boost from orders that are anticipating a clampdown on trade with the Middle Kingdom - from both the US and the EU. Exports surged in October by +12.7% from the same month a year ago to a 27-month high, much faster than the forecasted +5% and up from a five-month low of +2.4% growth in September.

More reflective of the state of their economy, imports fell -2.3% in October from a year ago to a four month low. Imports fell from ASEAN countries, the EU, and even best-bud Russia, but grew from the US as China hoarded soybean and other grains. Imports from Australia are down -8.7% and from New Zealand -11.1% so far in 2024. Both of us are being weaned from the Chinese economy quite quickly now.

Since June, European retail sales have been rising, which you may find counter-intuitive given most of their data is dull and unimpressive. The rise in retail sales is more impressive when you realise that it is volume based, after inflation is accounted for. It was up +2.8% in September from a year ago on that volume basis. There is life left yet in the EU economy.

With CPI inflation back down to 1.7% pa, the Bank of England trimmed its policy rate by -25 bps to 4.75% overnight, its second cut since August, and exactly as expected.

Both exports and imports fell in Australia in September, something of a surprise. Their export levels fell back to December 2021 levels, and their import levels retreated when September is usually when they peak. The China trade is at the heart of that undershoot.

Container freight rates rose +7% last week from the week earlier to be +240% higher than a year ago and +140% higher than pre-pandemic levels. Demand from China to Europe drove these rises, but as we have noted before, this is probably just in anticipation of trade clampdown. Bulk cargo rates were up +2.0% over the past week to be -6.6% lower than the same week a year ago.

The UST 10yr yield is now at just on 4.35% and down -7 bps from this time yesterday. The key 2-10 yield curve is now less positive, by +14 bps. Their 1-5 curve inversion is more inverted, now by -9 bps. And their 3 mth-10yr curve inversion is also more inverted, now by -21 bps. The Australian 10 year bond yield starts today at 4.68% and down -2 bps. The China 10 year bond rate is unchanged at 2.13%. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is up another +6 bps to 4.72%.

Wall Street has opened its Thursday with the S&P500 up +0.6% to a new record high. Overnight, European markets were sharply varied with London down another -0.3%. but Paris up +0.8% and Frankfurt up a strong +1.7%. Yesterday, Tokyo ended its Thursday session down -0.3%. Hong Kong was recovered +2.0% and Shanghai rose +2.6%. Singapore surged +2.0% as well. The ASX200 ended its Thursday session +0.3% higher, but the NZX50 fell -0.5% in volatile trade, although that did involve a late-session recovery.

The price of gold will start today at US$2693/oz and back up +US$26 from this time yesterday.

Oil prices are unchanged at US$72/bbl in the US while the international Brent price is now just under US$75.50/bbl.

The Kiwi dollar starts today at 60.2 USc and up +80 bps from this time yesterday. Against the Aussie we are down -20 bps at 90.3 AUc. Against the euro we are up another +40 bps at 55.8 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today at just on 69, and up +30 bps from yesterday at this time.

The bitcoin price starts today at US$75,858 and up +2.2% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been modest at just on +/- 1.5%.

Daily exchange rates

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The easiest place to stay up with event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here ».

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110 Comments

The USA is proof that no matter how much people have they always want more. A country with so much wealth is borrowing to extremes and just elected the class clown to ramp up borrowing even more. On their incomes and lower cost of living they should be able to live a decent life without all that debt, they should have elected an economically conservative boring president whose main goal was government surplus. 

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19

A big problem is distribution of that wealth, not volume.

Left leaning politics needs a good shake up, if this is to be overcome. Identify the primary concerns of the majority, and focus on that. There's no point trying to elevate one worker demographic over the other, if most workers are getting screwed.

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I don’t think that is true; why would they elect a guy who will cut healthcare, welfare, etc and give the rich tax cuts? 

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Because the Left aren't providing a clear alternative the public values. Or the constituency has priorities and values that overlook those consequences you have mentioned. Likely a bit of both.

Do I vote for the successful rich guy who's a nationalist and claims to put my country first, or do I vote for these noisy Karens who claim to know what's best for me, but who's current regime has only seen my lot worsen the last 4 years?

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You’ve nailed it in a couple of comments this morning 

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Well said Painter!

The US voter heard the KacklerKarenKamala ........ and wanted no more. 

They much prefer the lively entertainment of the Real Man Trump.  He is all Man and not afraid to say it.  He even made being a Man, Great Again.

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I predict the US economy is going to rocket. Massive supply side reform, lower taxes and onshoring jobs again. Ukraine war will end, Israel conflict will end. The US isn't an export focused economy (around 10% of GDP) so tariffs make perfect sense for them. Trump will cease most of the Net Zero aid as well and they will eviscerate bloated Govt. bureaucracy.

It might not be so good for the rest of the world but tough, maybe we all need to put the focus back on ourselves and the economy?

 

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Trump is very sympathetic toward the Anglosphere and Western Europe as well as Japan and South Korea.

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After the UK Labour Party sent over 100 members to help the Harris campaign nd which was borderline foreign interference? The UK Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trump have history as well. The poms are nervous.

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So they should be.  

The old saying, if you take a swing at the King, you must kill the King.

The King won.

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The US will pump Govt deficit spending through the economy into the pockets of the top 1%. This will register as a GDP increase on it's way through. This could easily last years while Trump et al tell the working classes that the reason they are not seeing the benefits of the booming economy is because the immigrants are stealing all the cookies, eating their pets etc. It's a recipe for fascism.     

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Can't last for years - there isn't the physical support left; thermodynamics intervenes from here on in, more and more per time. 

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It may last the term of Trump, so yes years but all the deficit spending in the world wont save the ponzi if it isnt redistributed (down)....it is the indebted that create the defaults.

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And that hasn't been happening already? The single largest transfer of wealth to the "elite" was in the last 4 years.

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Elon Musk just had a pretty good transfer of wealth in just one day...those few hundred million he gave away during the campaign looks like a good investment right now.  

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Do you vote for someone who won’t bankrupt the country, or someone who might? Why would such a wealthy country take that risk? It’s not poverty; 50% of the country voted trump and a fair chunk of them must earn more than their very nice median wage of almost 100k NZ. It’s just greed and spite. 
I just hate this concept of “I’m doing really well, but I’m not happy because someone else is doing better”. 

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If you look at voter breakdowns, Trump crushed in in those without college education, and earning 30-50k USD p.a. This is not people who are caring about 'bankrupting the country'. They probably don't think it's possible, and don't have enough buy-in anyway to care.

 

Tbh, losing low income voters is a serious issue for the left, both in USA and here. It's a symptom (IMO) of the left being obsessed of late with identity politics which plays to middle class socialists, but grates on working people. It leaves that low income voter base that in the past could be taken for granted vulnerable to sway by populists.

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Bankrupt the economy? Biden/Harris ran a budget deficit of 7% this year, the largest in peace time in just about any Western economy.

Be thankful someone sensible with a clue has taken over.

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you were good until the last statement

"Be thankful someone sensible with a clue has taken over."

 

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Trump doesn't get enough blame for the massive spending required during Covid, which was partly due to his pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates low to boost his economy.

When Yellen raised rates, Trump replaced her with Powell, who initially planned to raise rates too. However, Trump loudly threatened to fire him if he did, leading Powell to backtrack and offer various excuses for his change of heart.

Imagine an alternate reality where Covid hits, rates drop to 0, and all the money earning over 5% in savings accounts floods the market to buy everything at a discount, instead of having to print money because the rate drop had no significant impact.

Biden and Harris aren't much better and were also borrowing to the moon but it's naive to claim that the republicans are much better considering their economic policies are also dependent on borrowing vast sums of money.

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Donald Trump increased the deficit by 33% in his last term compared to Joe Biden's 16% (https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt-by-president-dollar-and-percentage-7371225)?

It is really unfathomable that people keep loudly and passionately arguing he is a better steward of the economy. The Trump reality distortion field is an amazing thing.

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He also fired Yellen and pressured the Powell into lowering interest rates before 2020 to juice up his economy which backfired hard when COVID hit.

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I was wondering why the figure for Barack was so high until I realised that was over 8 years.

So Obama increased the deficit by 7.6 billion in 8 years, whereas Trump managed 6.7 billion in 4 years. Both had significant stimulus programs - post GFC for Obama and post Covid for Trump, which also apply to Biden's term also to a certain extent. 

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Thats Trillion....with a T

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You are correct of course. That makes much more sense. Another reminder on how humans struggle to easily process and appreciate such large numbers...

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You cannot look at it in absolute terms, it has to be in context of GDP. Putting Covid aside, Trump never ran deficits anything close to this years Biden/Harris?

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Promoting government borrow and spend has been rife here on interest.co as well.

It's madness.

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what's mad is pumping deficit spending into an economy that is geared to channel that new money into the pockets of the top 1%.

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100% - there is nothing radical about MAGA - they'll enrich themselves on taxpayers and enforce their brand of hypocrisy on to wider society as a distraction. Like all the rest.

The bread is stale, the circus is pathetic and the swamp is still full of alligators and snakes.

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What size deficit do you think Trump will run in his first full year?!?

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"Do you vote for someone who won’t bankrupt the country, or someone who might?" - I don't understand this comment, hasn't US debt been growing exponentially regardless of which party has been in power? Or are you claiming the Harris administration had a rock solid plan to get them out of that? 

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50% of the country did not vote for Trump because 50% of eligible voters didn't even bother to vote. It was voter apathy that decided the election. Like I said a week or so ago, people would vote for the Devil if he promised them another $20 a week in their back pocket. A person on TV said his Taco had gone from $2.99 four years ago to $8.99 plus so all he is eating on the BBQ now is chicken. The people at the bottom are being left behind and clearly the numbers of them are increasing. Its going to get ugly over there to the point they make it ugly for everyone else as well.

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Excellent description Pa1nter.  Applies to New Zealand as well.

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Occasional Aucklander Branko Marcetic:
'Maybe most egregious, Harris seemingly refused to run on the broadly popular $15 minimum wage hike that had been a big part of Biden’s winning 2020 platform. 
'For weeks, she wouldn’t say how much she would raise the wage by, she never brought it up in the debate and other major televised appearances, and she only officially adopted the now outdated $15-an-hour figure three weeks before voting. In thirty-five public events between the day she officially took up the position, October 22, and November 4, Harris mentioned the policy exactly twice: both times in Nevada and without mentioning a dollar figure. It didn’t feature as a top message in her Facebook advertising, it wasn’t in her final ad blitz, and it certainly didn’t appear in any of the ads I personally saw while in the battleground state of North Carolina over the weekend.
'This decision likely cost her. Voters in Trump-voting Missouri and Alaska have approved or are on the way to approving ballot measures raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and instituting paid sick leave (another popular measure Harris declined to run on).
'Rather than the bread-and-butter matters that voters have consistently said are their biggest concern, Harris and the Democrats were determined to turn this into an election about abortion, democracy, and Trump’s character....
'Given a second chance by the friendly Stephen Colbert to answer the question of how her presidency would be different from Biden’s, Harris fumbled for an answer before reminding the TV host that “I’m not Donald Trump.” 
'It may as well have been the campaign’s slogan.'
https://jacobin.com/2024/11/election-harris-trump-democrats-strategy

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How do we distribute the wealth?

Money is not wealth. That assets are is merely a belief system, an invented construct.

Politics is just another tribal mindset, separation, us vs them paradigm.

Can laws solve the problem if the market rules, and never the twain shall meet.

Paying workers more, having "less", having enough and helping others have enough is ultimately a human choice.

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Sounds to me you are living in the Matrix.

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US poverty levels are up 60% since 2021! Workers get paid, struggle to make ends meet, and watch their wages getting handed straight over to rich folks and billionaires via corporations. They know they're getting screwed over. The democrats completely failed to speak to that - they thought they could 'centrist' their way to power. They got found out. See also Hipkins (and Starmer in a few years time).

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I’ve looked at what I would get paid over there, I certainly wouldn’t call it poverty!

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You’ve just perfectly illustrated the problem, well done!

in case you don’t understand - the lot of higher earning urbanites is fine! It’s the middle of the middle and lower that are hurting

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The median wage (the middle) is almost $100k NZ. 

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I think that is median Household income, not individual income. 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360478536/over-100000-nz-households-cro…

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Another great comment. And let’s please bury all this ‘leftist’ crap about the Democrats. They most certainly are not leftist. They are centrists every day of the week. And that has cost them.

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That’s what I don’t understand. A wealthy country was given the choice between a fairly sensible and safe centre party that represented the average person as much as possible, or a nutter that only represents himself. And they said “I’m one of the richest people on the planet (which most people in the US are), but that’s not good enough, I’ll vote for that absolute clown who is promising to borrow up large for rich people’s tax cuts”. 
Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t care that Trump won, I just don’t understand the psychology of it. 

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The electorate was unhappy with their lot. In part they blamed the incumbent and thought the predecessor had benefitted them better. On offer again they went for him despite the hardly slight moral and legal shortcomings. Where it gets interesting is if that segment of the  electorate is not benefited in return, remains unhappy and gets that betrayal mood going. The mid terms in two years time will be telling in that regard but if there is reason for discontent it may well have boiled up by then. 

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I wrote this comment yesterday that I suggests explains a big part of it;

"I suggest Trump is the result of the wealth gap. He lies, cheats, commits fraud, treats women like sex objects etc. All basic human traits. Unfortunately to many people he looks just like them, despite being wealthy. He represents to many people they can be as ugly as they want and still come on top. They can fight back at the 'establishment' that they perceive has held them back unfairly. Best of all they don't have to look into a mirror to recognise their own faults. Trump has given them licence to be bigoted, biased, misogynist, anti-government and any other negative trait they want. They won't like what they get in the end, but they asked for it. "

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There are many flaws and complexities in their society and largely they can be easily manipulated. For example my sales manager twenty years or so ago  over there, nice, honest and solid guy. Asked him once while having a drink who out of all America he would like to be. First Hugh Hefner. Second Donald Trump.

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Come on! The bottom 40% of US households earn 11% of the income! And most of those households are only one health problem away from abject poverty and debt. Working people in the US want change - and they voted for the guy that says he will change things.

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The idea of 'left' has changed.  These days it seems to be about the interests of one tribe over another and arrogrant promotion of a few unusual causes

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Yeah I guess so. But that’s definitely not the traditional conception of it, nor mine

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Perhaps the perception of the left losing the plot was well illustrated here in 2020, by the suspected strategic voting whereby usual National voters switched  to Labour to stymie the Greens from being formally in government. Strangely there, the mechanics of MMP were  used to defeat the principles of MMP and return a virtual  FPP government.

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"US poverty levels are up 60% since 2021!"

That appears to be a huge increase above trend....what source? Not saying it isnt so , indeed it could well be expected and will keep the pressure on interest rates to the downside.

As to Hipkins , Starmer et al we will see a revolving door of leadership in all western democracies until such time as the system is radically changed/collapses.....unless war is considered the 'solution' first.

Sometimes being a small, remote economy in a temperate zone has its advantages.

 

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Number of people living below the poverty line increased from 25.6M to 42.8M from 2021 to 2023... Source. Food insecurity also way up. Source. Biden stripped away the covid-era protections. People are demonstrably worse off and they know it.

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 "People are demonstrably worse off and they know it."

https://www.statista.com/statistics/200463/us-poverty-rate-since-1990/

Agreed....it appears to be back at the peaks of the early 90s and GFC period. I think however it is the increasing cohort of those approaching poverty  (the previously middle class) that have a larger impact on both politics and economy , remembering that those in poverty dont tend to be 'credit worthy.'....that is not to dismiss the plight of those in poverty but to refocus your comment....

"Workers get paid, struggle to make ends meet, and watch their wages getting handed straight over to rich folks and billionaires via corporations. They know they're getting screwed over. The democrats completely failed to speak to that - they thought they could 'centrist' their way to power. "

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Same issues in the UK. People are resorting to van life. 

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Van life on the rise in NZ.  People falling into trap of 'trying it for freedom' and then suddenly realising they cant get back into the 9-5.

Quite common among older people.

 

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Jfoe,

Methinks that with billionaires owning most of the media, both MSM and social, the left doesn't stand a chance at getting any message across. (In 1983, 90% of US media was controlled by 50 companies, by 2011, 90% was controlled by just 6 companies.)

It's also worth noting that billionaires were certainly afraid, very very afraid, of what the Dems could do with wealth & CG taxes, or even re-instating AMT. They got the message loud and clear. They lined up behind the Orange One in a staggeringly obvious fashion. Such a shame that the average 'merican couldn't figure which party would serve them better.

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"On their incomes and lower cost of living they should be able to live a decent life without all that debt."

School yourself up on how the world economy works please. This is a nonsense statement

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If the average Joe is so wealthy why do most not have health insurance.

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It's not much different from here though just on a more extreme scale. 

The wealthiest we've ever been in history and nobody has enough.

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Shifting into an era of repair: US infrastructure spending

That is the US problem, as it is with every western (developed) country. 

'As the country enters an age where infrastructure maintenance needs are growing, and spending has largely risen to meet those maintenance demands (especially at a state and local level), there has been a significant drop in capital spending. Not all places, clearly, have the capacity to pursue new projects or major upgrades. And the federal government, with the exception of a major stimulus package like ARRA from nearly a decade ago, has generally not filled this gap either.'

Entropy is Trump's biggest enemy. And he will lose.

Edit - JJ above, refuses to address the physical (which underwrites all 'money'). Printed proxy does not parry entropy. 

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We can argue it has for the last several decades.

But yes, developed nations have an issue with much of their infrastructure getting to the point where it's not economically serviceable, but replacement is extremely expensive and time consuming.

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I feel like we’ve had this debate before! The only reason infrastructure isn’t being built is because a big block of voters are too old to get the benefits of it and are voting for tiny tax cuts instead. National could have spent an extra $3 billion a year on infrastructure, but voters wanted an extra $20 a week instead. Trump will also give tax cuts and then claim there is no money for infrastructure.
We can’t build anything until the boomers die off, it’s nothing to do with resources. 

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a big block of voters are too old to get the benefits

The utility is there but the economics are questionable. Big infra spend is viable, if you're undertaking strong economic growth, or if you're relatively under developed, and infra spend will help you industrialize. Spending a fortune just to retain or marginally improve on the status quo is unlikely to provide an economic net return. 

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I think this is your best one in this thread. You nail it well bringing PDKs points into it and pointing to our own problems too. 

The Boomer generation is an irrelevancy. their voter block has long been taken over by younger generations. People are concerned about where the wealth is going, and tend to take infrastructure for granted. They've forgotten what it took to build it. But now PDK's point about limits to growth, the physical limits to resources means the returns from one aspect of infrastructure investment are much less than they used to be. Another aspect though is that infrastructure requires maintenance and/or replacement at great cost today, and if that is not done, then the bones of the economy decay and will ultimately collapse.

I also think Jimbo is making a common mistake; he is attributing too much ability to think and expecting it from ordinary voters. Unfortunately history teaches that mostly they just don't.

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"They've forgotten what it took to build it." 
Or were not alive when it was built.

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Yes and no. I wasn't alive when most of the major roads were built, but I still understand the cost to the country post WW2. 

Every adult in the country, if they have been paying attention, will understand the cost of the Transmission Gully motorway. And they should also understand the cost it could've been if it had been built when it should've been (A lot cheaper). So a lot of the myths governments promote around spending have come back to bite them. Some projects can and should be funded from deficit funding, not taxation. The bounds of which projects are the economic returns.  

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Jimbo Jones - Bollocks, bollocks, and thrice bollocks. 

Only by studiously avoiding, can you continue to spout your posits.

https://static.financialsense.com/documents/2024-06/industrial-transfor…

So I ask a simple question Why do you avoid learning? 

Not that you're the only one...

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I don't question the infrastructure entropy.  But how much of the challenge is from our ridiculous level of population growth.

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They're inextricably intertwined. 

If we'd stayed at the 1 billion we were at pre tapping into the store of fossil energy, we would still be on a depletion course, but hardly started down it. Our options would be many and much. We could have designed for ease of maintenance, simplicity rather than complexity, and with a longer view (50-100 years, say). 

Despite the panic of the Musks of this world - who need more, always - it seems humanity is choosing not to procreate for even replacement. The lag-time is going to be too slow to offset the damage (from an 8-billion starting-point) though. The sums/projections should always be done ex fossil energy (can we maintain this projected item, ex FF?). All levels in NZ, back-cast-to-forward-project population growth (Dunedin is typical). But de-growth - unless migration - is the more likely trend. Who, of the remaining, maintain what? 

Which is why I've been saying we need to triage. Coastal retreat should be part of that discussion. A reducing population says there will be houses to spare...

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I'm curious to know what actions we could have taken to cap the global pop at 1B?

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We couldn't have. Religious tribalism would prevent it. No real different today. Not without a united world government, and even then how would that be made to happen. The only really likely out come is significantly ugly, and the size of your bank account will not be a saving quality unless you're smart enough to put it to good use.

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"I'm curious to know what actions we could have taken to cap the global pop at 1B?"

Restrictions on the use of energy and/or land...not likely I agree

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And still there is no coordinated strategy between central and local government on what infrastructure to maintain or abandon. Throw in insurance companies that are actually giving some signals (look to councils now trying to save costs by chancing their arm with not insuring some assets)

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Great comment. 

If you saw Paddy Gower's Ice series (let alone the other limits to growth) and you are in local governance - you have to choose cognitive dissonance as a lifestyle. Dunedin City Council is a classic example of this; one sand-dune away from losing South Dunedin, it is building a civic centre there. Just nuts. A total waste - not because it's a library etc, but because it is doomed. And while they're doing it, they're not addressing the implications for a lot of other coastal build, either. 

And 3Waters, in whatever format, is un-affordable vis-a-vis rising maintenance (Wellington being a classic - and no, it's not because left/right). 

Yes, insurance will walk first, banks by association; the poor will be the losers (the retreating rich will apply political pressure for reimbursement) 

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I hope Dunedin gets some more hotels soon to help its Tourism

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You'd better hope that your local council has better actuaries than the insurance companies if/when they start deciding which assets to cut back on insuring.

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E,A&C - Using fossil energy, I'm guessing. Which there is an unlimited amount of, I'm guessing. And carbon is a hoax, I'm guessing? 

 

 

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Seemly that more billionaires and more money didn't sway it. "This year, high-earners swayed both ways, but more veered left: Forbes counted 83 billionaires backing Vice President Kamala Harris and 52 in former President Donald Trump’s corner."

https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2024/11/05/2024-election-mone…

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You (and DC) miss the point. They are Elite, and that isn't a club, it's dog-eat-dog. Each manoeuvres to advantage, and both major Parties for a long time, have had their Elite with their snouts firmly in the (often military-industrial) trough. 

They might have gotten 'paper richer' in an artificial game in  the last few hours, but the US as a whole, is a decaying hegemony. We get 'jobs' reported, but not that it's a part-time shelf-loading or burger-flipping one 20 kilometres from home, no bus (not to fit the hours, anyway) so using a probably-uninsured jalopy costing half the pay...  

The joke is that the US dollar hegemony is in trouble - and they're ALL on that ship. 

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My first thoughts would be that following such protectionist policy with the need to fund it via external debt ( of which China buys plenty) would be USD negative. Also the fact that US prices are under this upward tariff pressure may be inflationary for them but it would be closer to a zero sum gain than markets are predicting and their inflation would impact the ROW negatively as demand from the US declines. So prices rises globally aren’t necessarily the base case. It’s more a delamination of the “everything follows the US” trade. 

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Kamala would have won if she had focused on inflation, immigration and jobs. She should have ignored the idiot opposite instead of talking about him.

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Failure of basic marketing 'best practice' to spend too much time dissing your competition as opposed to pitching your own value proposition. Definitely wouldn't have helped. I watched a few of her interviews etc where she'd just start blabbering about 'Donald Trump' in response no matter what question was asked. 

I also think there were some other fundamental flaws with her platform and/or campaign (too much focus on a specific social issue that wound up putting off male voters particularly in more religious demographics, insufficient promotion of the positive economic data her/Biden's administration could point to, and the typical Democrat obsession with turning a blind eye to illegal immigration) but rambling endlessly about Trump didn't help. 

Trump's campaign also played some blinders e.g. reaching out to Gen Z males through the likes of podcast appearances ... if I understand correctly he won the majority of the Gen Z male vote. These kids get all their info from Joe Rogan, Twitch streamers etc. I guess is it any worse than getting it from Stuff or NZ Herald!!

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"Kamala would have won if she had focused on inflation, immigration and jobs" - of course , but she would no longer be Kamala if she was capable of this kind of reasoning .

A bit like saying " crocs would be fine if they just turned vegetarian". 

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Wouldn't have made any difference, Trump got in by telling lies so she would have had to tell even bigger lies. 

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Interesting watching Maccy B’s latest video last night.

If I could sum it up:

- US economy hot in ‘25, but could struggle beyond that

- inflation to rise again in the USA

- much lower inflation / deflation elsewhere

- beyond a very short term sugar rush from stimulus, China to struggle big time

- Europe very weak, but the need for greater military spend may eventually provide some stimulus 

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Trumps administration will slash government spending and energy costs. That reduces inflation. Ending the Ukraine war will reduce energy costs in Europe, will help revive Germanys economy. Tariffs will be targeted and won’t impact our trade with USA. NZ’s exposure is being too reliant on China.  

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What about USA debt problem...??? Anyone?

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They can't slash energy costs. 

Because energy underwrites money. And fracking is already subsidised, for the simple reason that it cannot pay its way without (reflected in the greater US society going deeper and deeper into debt - it's the same thin in a different form). They have fudged things by debt, and by maintenance-deferral (and individually, by dropping insurance etc). 

China has more modern infrastructure, so less entropy - yet. But it too, blew the RE bubble (proving that growth, QE blown, shows up somewhere) as did we all. How demand from that country goes, may hang on how RE reconciles (how much discretionary spend is left). 

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Trump will push for more resource extraction and thus the America will prosper for a time, but we all know that energy isn't forever, so we watch and wonder how long their resources will last before they have to wage further war (if they have said resources to do so) to maintain their energy stock from somewhere else. Surely they must be playing a long game with people inserted in Venezuela to push influence there for the long game given their oil reserves.

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Drill Baby, Drill!

"The Fervo Cape Geothermal Power Project generates energy by injecting water into hot subsurface rock formations. 

It then extracts the heated water to produce electricity, rather than relying on naturally occurring underground hot water like traditional geothermal systems.

If fully developed, the project will cover approximately 631 acres, including 148 acres on public lands, and produce up to 2 gigawatts of clean energy. "

https://interestingengineering.com/energy/2gw-geothermal-project-approv…

"It would take approximately four
years of drilling at the rate Texas currently drills for oil
and gas to produce the equivalent energy of all oil and
gas used for electricity and heat production currently
in the State from Texas’ geothermal resources.

An aggressive
geothermal drilling program at ‘home’ such as this may
serve to free up Texan natural gas for export, instead of
being required for domestic electricity production.
Source: Future of Geothermal Energy in Texas, 2023."

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Now the dust has settled a bit there definitely seems to be a feeling of optimism and relief in the air.

It's like Narnia after the White Witch has been defeated. We can celebrate Christmas this year!

 

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Ding, dong, the witch is dead

hang on - we got Gollum...

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That's Wizard of Oz and LOTR.

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lol - nothing has changed - it's a delusion.

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Elon's +15 billion dollars richer!

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will be interesting he will be putting elon in the white house and at the same time trump

has promised to go against telsa and other EV makers in favour of Ford and GM 

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Both have had plenty of practice with divorce and having affairs with others while lying and cheating so should be fun to watch at least

Put in a bulk popcorn order now -and some bud light so you can stay soberish 

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> at the same time trump has promised to go against telsa and other EV makers in favour of Ford and GM 

From a policy perspective, last time Trump achieved very little of what he promised and what he promised changed constantly.

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Trump hates EVs

Trump hates China

Teslas are made in US and China by Musk

Trump loves Musk

And Putin

on we go...

 

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...... and still a shit father.

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It's all well and good stating that because Trump is in this is going to happen or not. But the media really need to have a look at themselves before making statements just 72 hours ago the media were predicting a Harris win and or a very close election. Didn't happen. Also remeber when Trump was in before the media were stating look at the nuclear clock we are at the closest to WW3 yet no wars. How did Biden do notice the media don't say how close we are to a WW now. How about again the last time Trump was in the media running around interviewing all these Americans who were going to leave the US and INZ noticed all these initial requests to immigrate here. But later stated most came to nothing yet again the media were quiet about that. So again want ever the media says I take with a big grain of salt

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No one is listening to them anymore. 

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Putin got blamed for inflation last time now watch Trump get the blame.

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Watched the movie Amsterdam a few nights ago. TVNZ+ on demand. 

It's loosely based on the Wall Street Putsch. One can't help but think the modern day one will be about 4 years away. Ho Hum. What is it Churchill said? "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

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I think it's time to take a break from MSNBC, mate. 

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I've been following economies since I was in high school. And I've also been studying how the rich have become richer, and richer, and richer, for as long. My understanding of how they've done it pre-dates MSNBC by many years. There will come a time when one country's population cries, "Enough !!!", and then suddenly, led by 'citizen journalism', many other countries will start asking the same questions.

At that point, what do you think will happen? 

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that quote pretty much encapsulate the whole human race Chris.

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Unhinged was a great movie. loved it!

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