Bank's Governor Needs To Provide Leadership: Peters

The New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters is looking for a reduction in the OCR (Official Cash Rate) of at least 0.75%. “It is time for the Governor to show some leadership,” Mr. Peters said.

“New Zealand has been the last to move for years. It is time we led instead of following the likes of the U.K., the U.S.A., and Europe. As we head into a downturn we should make every effort to give business a fillip. This will not happen if the assessment of the risks around our economic outlook is again inaccurate.

“The conservative path of following others has artificially denied liquidity and propped up interest rates at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. It is time for a braver monetary policy that breathes life into our sagging economy and nothing less than a 0.75% decrease in the cash rate will do,” Mr. Peters said.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>