KEY POINTS:
My favourite gloom merchant, the UK Daily Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, has gone particularly bearish in his latest blog with the uncompromising title 'Bond market calls Fed's bluff as global economy tears apart'.
Government bond markets are crucial mechanisms in the world of finance: they are where money speaks directly to politics. And, according to Evans-Pritchard, money is putting the hard word on politics right now, demanding a higher price for its services, just as governments around the world scramble desperately to borrow.
"Nobody wants to be left holding the bag if and when the global monetary blitz succeeds in stoking inflation," he writes.
As this article notes some governments may struggle to borrow at all.
So far the New Zealand government has managed to fill its debt quotas - although, it's worth noting that one bond auction failed in mid-December last year.
In a little noticed release at the end of 2008, the New Zealand Debt Management Office - whose function is self-explanatory - revealed it had made some changes to its bond auction processes: bumping up the amount it would raise each time; introducing a new long-term bond, and; increasing the frequency of the auctions from fortnightly to weekly.
If money is ever running out of patience with New Zealand government policies you will probably see it happen here first when the NZDMO publishes the weekly auction results.
Alternatively. if you're not interested in tracking the arc of the global financial upheaval anymore you could adopt this strategy pioneered by Danish businessman, Lars Nonbye, who has banned all mention of the global financial crisis from his workplace.
"You have to say, 'enough is enough'," Nonbye says in the report.
Allegedly, it's catching on.
David Chaplin
