Canada thiving in the current crisis

[The Atheist]

This is true in general, however the simple fact of this case is that we have had effective policies. New Zealand was extremely well-placed to survive the financial crisis with a substantial government surplus, amongst other things.

This should have been correct, but time is proving that the position still wasn't good enough.

We beat most countries into recession and we're still in one.

The problem now is that the government has nothing to fight back with. The niggardly amounts Key has been prepared to dispense so far are drops in the bucket. The main reason we're even slightly prepared to weather the recession is more about 1987 than anything the government has done in the meantime.

Can New Zealand have Shatner?

No. Nor Brian Adams, Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray or any of those other singers. We'll have that Avril chick as a porn actress, though.

 

[gumboot]

We beat most countries into recession and we're still in one.

You would expect us to go into a recession fairly quickly given our reliance on US trade - the US went into recession in late 2007. We only "beat" most countries by a matter of a couple of months and by December 2008 (3 months after we went into recession) the following countries were in recession with us:

USA
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
the Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Republic of Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
the Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
Japan
Iceland
New Zealand
Sweden

As for still being in a recession... and? Everyone is. But New Zealand is in the top 5 in the OECD as far as how we are placed to survive the crisis.

 

[The Atheist]

We only "beat" most countries by a matter of a couple of months and by December 2008 (3 months after we went into recession) the following countries were in recession with us:

Who else joined us doesn't escape the obvious fact that we were first to drop the +. Our position was not as strong as it should have been, given the budget surpluses.

As for still being in a recession... and? Everyone is. But New Zealand is in the top 5 in the OECD as far as how we are placed to survive the crisis.

I hadn't disputed that; I said that the reasons were less to do with policy than historical reasons. Like having no bank exposure to US ninja loans.

 

[T.A.M.]

Come to Canada...

Buxom Blonds, Hockey, Beer, White Christmas, and no recession to boot...

TAM