@ $4/pound it’s already serious money!
anyway, butter’s too yummy to burn

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Why are we churning out mountains of butter when we could be turning our butter fat into biodeisel and making some serious money.

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jh Says:
April 29th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
How would the government deal with too large a deficit… ? Once it would have devalued.

in my view the proper response is to regulate capital flows & foreign ownership – here’s where we went into a bit more depth on this: http://blog.greens.org.nz/index.php/2008/03/21/trade-and-debt/

our deficits didn’t just come about because we suddenly became poor at producing or at exporting, nor did a previously sober race suddenly say “hey these credit cards are great! we can spend more than we earn!� in fact we’re probably better exporters than ever before, with an economy more focussed on our export industries instead of on the old inefficient import-replacement manufacturing.

while a situation like this is more complex than can be fully accounted for in generalities, in the main we didn’t get into debt from trade imbalances – the problem is primarily generated from the other side of the equation – trade imbalances arise from capital movement imbalances. the precipitate liberalization of capital markets & ownership regulations along with the sale of state assets have dragged investment into the country (not so much into new productive capacity but simply into acquisitions), which has kept the dollar high & hence foreign stuff cheap.

(part of a long post in that thread)

jingyang Says:
April 29th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Well we can cover a few months of the deficit from the sale of Vector’s electricity network in Wellington..:-)
But of course, in the longer term profit repatriated to Hong Kong will add to the deficit

alas, it’s the other way around – a huge capital inflow does not cover deficit, it creates deficit, & is the opposite to the direction the government should be looking to move in.
this really could be the key moment at which they choose to win or lose the next election

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Its Gun Fight at OK Coral for libertarian philosophy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/business/worldbusiness/28oil-WEB.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

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What about real estate, perhaps it is a minor factor but given the 25% population increase since 1990 it must have been an issue. Since developers plug into our existing infrastructure and we need a city plan to deal with growth (not to mention potential cold showers) I think it is very much our business how a trade deficit is being dealt with.

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Who’s this “we” that is being referred to in this post? I’m not responsible for what other people sell or buy, and neither is anyone else. As long as people can pay for what they buy and get paid for what they sell, this is largely irrelevant.

Services are completely ignored of course, making this post little more than quaint onanism.

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Any idea what type of fertilizer is being imported? Is it nitrates such as ammonium nitrate and urea, or is it more Potassium, Phosphate or Sulphur types?

Nitrate fertilizers are made from ammonia which in turn is made from hydrogen, which is often made from natural gas (at Kapuni in NZ). However hydrogen can be made by electrolysis so if we had spare renewable electricity resources, we can use them for that. It is one way of exporting energy.

Trevor.

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Brazil Oil Trapped by 500-Degree Heat, Salt Barrier (Update2)

By Joe Carroll
Until the tools needed to exploit the reservoirs are invented, the crude will remain locked under the sea, said Matt Cline, a U.S. Energy Department economist.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aalWn.eJHGZk&refer=latin_america

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Well we can cover a few months of the deficit from the sale of Vector’s electricity network in Wellington..:-)
But of course, in the longer term profit repatriated to Hong Kong will add to the deficit

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How would the government deal with too large a deficit… ? Once it would have devalued.

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“According to normal economic theory, and the history of oil, rising prices have two major effects,� said Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the International Energy Agency, which advises industrialized countries. “They reduce demand and they induce oil supplies. Not this time.�

A key reason that supply is not rising to meet demand is that producers outside of the OPEC cartel – countries like Russia, Mexico and Norway – have been showing troubling signs of sluggishness.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/business/worldbusiness/28oil-WEB.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

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Housing Bubble Popped by Spike in Fuel Costs, New Analysis Shows
Outlying Suburbs Hardest Hit with Devalued Real Estate

http://www.ceosforcities.org/newsletters/files/Driven_Release_Final.pdf

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Globalisation falls over because the world economy is a subset of the worlds ecosystem, but nothing stops the human population and it’s ability to take over resources. Globalisation would see a leveling between the rich countries and poor but a low average standard of living and as growth continues.. collapse. That’s how I read the situation anyhows.

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It is not just oil prices. Components are running out. I think phosphate is peaking as well.

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That’s by value – again it is probably being driven at least partially by oil prices, but it would be interesting to see the figures by weight too. If anyone has them?

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Um is that 430% by weight or value. I think price of some fertilisers are skyrocketing.

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