So back then I suggested the RBNZ should think about selling as much NZ$ as they could. Why? Why go against prevailing market sentiment which is that intervention doesn’t really work and simply provides a target for the speculating hordes which incidentally account for 95% of the volume of daily trades.

That’s a fair sentiment when your currency is falling but when it’s rising? And when you have an eye popping foreign debt of almost 140% of GDP……that’s foreign debt not overall debt.

And yet the punters keep buying the NZ$. Perhaps they know something I don’t. Maybe 50 years worth of oil has been discovered in the Southern Basin. Who knows?

The point is that at some point that money has to be paid back and at the moment, due to the sneaky monster that is compound interest, we can’t even get close to reducing it.

But now is the time to strike.

Again I would like to suggest that the RBNZ starts selling NZ$. When you have a lot of something to sell it’s always best to do it when others are keen to buy. Now is that chance.

By selling NZ$ now and paying back, or at least holding for that same purpose, it will take the pressure off the very precarious dependency we have on overseas lenders.

This doesn’t eliminate the debt but simply transfers it to a domestic situation where it can be managed at lower rates and where there is no threat of having to suddenly repay.

How can the RBNZ do this? Again this is very simple. Print NZ$ and buy US$. There is no change to the actual money supply just how the debt is denominated.

Considering the implosion Iceland experienced and the unfolding disaster that is Ireland (surviving only due to its membership of the Euro), it makes complete sense just to get on with this now.

To allow foreign debt to be run at such a level is financial mismanagement of the highest level.

It also shows a willingness to be dictated to and dependent on overseas interests. This makes no sense at all when the country’s economy security is at stake.

Of course in a case such as this the ending barely surprises. In fact we never seem to be surprised at how excess and gluttony ends in tears. So perhaps its normal like a child who has too much ice cream, sweets or cakes. We know the ending but somehow stand by and watch because ultimately the child has to learn.

Nothing much really changes though.

The financial warriors of the ice nation rampaged through the European bazaars picking up companies like confetti. A sad tale signifying what? Same old, same old.

Th reality is that we always succumb to the bubble. It’s in our nature, it’s part of our make-up: a relentless and cored belief that somehow it’s all going to work out and we will have something for nothing.

And even in the deepest mess that is the US financial system crazy stories still appear. John Thain and his $40k or whatever toilet. Nice.

Nothing is new. Nothing has changed. It’s just bigger and makes a lot more noise.

As Frank Rich mused on Obama and the End of the Gilded Age,

He spoke of those at the economic pinnacle who embraced greed and irresponsibility as well as the rest of us who collaborated in our “collective failure to make hard choices.” He branded as sub-American those who “prefer leisure over work or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.” And he wasn’t just asking Paris Hilton “to set aside childish things.” As Linda Hirshman astutely pointed out on The New Republic’s Web site, even Obama’s opening salutation — “My fellow citizens,” not “fellow Americans” — invoked the civic responsibilities we’ve misplaced en masse.

Let’s face it we all want to make loadsamoney……on our houses, investments, crazy schemes…..but the truth is it’s just a facade. But like Versailles it will linger on in our minds for years to come.