Hey @Chris #21,

<quote>What problem I have with the recession is that to beat the recession we need to inflate the market and spend.

Yet people are not spending why? If we stop spending more businesses will go bankrupt...</quote>

Are you suggesting that the way to get past impossible debt problems is by getting further in debt?

i agree with colin #25 nz is a low wage economy stuck with high living costs with many totaly unjustified eg: electricity, fuel, and food especialy meat . In a country that yields high production levels in meat its a disgrace whats being charged at the supermarket. Past & present govs. have let it out of control its unfair to the NZ people what is being charged .

The best way to avoid a debt is avoid buying houses. They are obscenely overpriced for the most part and renting represents far better value. Ignore your parents advice - they bought when property represented good value. Why take on massive debt when interest, rates, and maintenance costs are 2.5 to 3 times what you would pay to rent. The only winners from this are the banks - they like debt, and they like you to work damn hard and send your wife to work as extra security.

Wow. Looks like a lot of latent communists out there... Sure our economy is dependent upon consumption, and it's been shown to be good practice to spend up during a recession so that businesses don't crumble and people who work for them keep their jobs and consequently at least some form of livelihood.

But the deeper issue is that it really is nuts that we still live in such economic uncertainty in times of such technological superiority over our world. We let little, greedy minds (including our own) run things, and just lap it up by buying a new PS3, or iPod.

Should we really not spend the money on our kids' school camps or shoes?

Dave @23, How much does the taxpayer "top up" your income every week to make this fantastic financial management possible?

In my opinion, a writer/author must be careful in titling an article with a How. This article doesn't have much meat to "teach" its readers. A "how" article is supposed to teach but this one simply states the obvious. I understand that there might not be enough space to do it but I suppose a change of title would be more suited to do in order to support the content.

OY Look AT MY FLASH NEW CAR, BUT DONT TELL THE JONNYS'S NEXT DOOR THEIR FIENDS, THEYLL GO AND BUY ONE AND RE-MORTGAGE THIER HOUSE

I challenge any of the retirement commission bureaucrats to live on a pension after a 20% reduction when its your sole source of income in old age. The usual unfeeling and unchristian claptrap from highly paid government employees.

What happens to our country when this all picks up and theres no businesses left?

The irony of this whole situation is that cheap money in the form of low interest debt is what made everything so expensive in the first place by creating artificially inflated demand.

"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." Henry Ford