Another weekend has come and gone – back to work tomorrow with a new roster being posted which will result in an earlier start time starting from next week – from 11:30 start to a 9:30 start. I’m still processing the information that was given on Monday along with the follow up today with my team, There is a feedback form that they want us to provide feedback regarding the changes – end of the day it is a difficult situation that I don’t think anyone would want to take on.

The manager who was chatting to us in the meeting choked up a bit because I think for a lot of those steering the ship the hope was that eventually things would get back to normal. The hope that eventually New Zealand make its way to level 2 that spending would pick up but the problem is that I think for a many they didn’t realise how deep the recession is – the first thing people do when they are running short on money is cutting unnecessary expenditures and only buy the absolute core essentials with even those who do have a job playing it safe by putting some savings aside or focus on paying down debt quickly so if they do end up losing their job they’re in a better financial situation to weather the storm.

Thursday is when the budget comes out – although the finance minister is down playing what what is on offer, he cannot afford to have a budget response that isn’t bold enough to meet the challenge. The average New Zealand is hugely indebted – there needs to be relief in that area or otherwise there is a risk of a banking crisis off the back of a economic crisis. What could the government do? Those who have lost their job and have debt will have the Reserve Bank nationalise that debt then finance it back to the consumer at 0.25% interest (the official cash rate) with no time limit – they wouldn’t be able to raise new debt until that debt was cleared off but it would give an individual or a family enough wiggle room to survive until they can get a job then able to start making payments when they can – once fulled paid off they can raise new debt. The benefit to the bank is that it would taken off the balance sheet of the bank, the consumer would be given enough room to breath and there wouldn’t create perverse incentives to try and play the system.

I finished cleaning out the oven today – damn it was so dirty but now it is so clean and tidy. I used it for the first time – I’m happy I chose the ‘no smelling’ version of the oven cleaner. I think in future I need to do it a lore more often to avoid the sort of build up which required me to get down on my hand and knees to give it a good scrubbing.