Originally Posted by
elZorro
The recent history of NZ is littered with lessons learned when state-owned assets or enterprises have been sold off. It so often ends badly Iceman. I thought John Key looked decidedly down as he annouced the sale process on TV yesterday. What is it that he knows, that you don't?
I was talking to someone the other day who reckoned the reason the NZ dollar was so high was that NZ had huge investments overseas that Treasury or the Reserve Bank have been making on the quiet over the years (sorry for the inaccuracy of the source). However on scouring the web, I can see no evidence of this, although my impeccable? source had been in Wellington for some years.
It's more likely our dollar is so high because the interest rate is still very high compared to other countries. In Japan for example, funds can be borrowed for 1-2%. Just think what you could do with funds at that rate here.
Which all begs the question, did we ever need to sell these assets down, and will the populace really respond across the board to buy them up, as Iceman hopes?
I suspect No, on both counts.