KEY POINTS:
So is the economic crisis in Australia and New Zealand now worse than in the US?
That might seem a little dramatic, but a report in the very serious, right of centre British paper The Telegraph makes the case that it is.
Tallying up this region's nasty fortnight of banking writedowns, the growing property slump on both sides of the Tasman and then throwing in New Zealand's finance sector meltdown just for good measure The Telegraph report makes for very grim reading.
Both the Aussie and New Zealand dollar are facing big falls and our national debt levels are at worrying levels, the report notes.
None of this will come as a shock to Business Herald readers but is interesting to see how bad things can look from the outside - particularly given the Brits now have little real stake in this region.
Still, there is definitely a hint of hyperbole to the whole thing (who'd have thought that was possible in the British press?).
The Telegraph report gets it wrong about our finance company sector - declaring that 23 firms are in bankruptcy. Actually most, like Hanover are still solvent, they've just suspended repayments while they work out how much trouble they are in. Also - if you count the Mortgage Trusts - the tally of troubled firms is more like 27.
Also, the report fails to note that the Australian economy is still sucking in plenty of foreign cash thanks to the global commodity boom and that country's ample mineral wealth.
As is New Zealand's economy for that matter - only thanks to dairy rather than copper and iron ore.
For all that though The Telegraph makes a worrying point.
Australasian financial institutions - from the big banks down to the lowest tier lenders - have suddenly found themselves dangerously exposed to a faltering property sector.
Worse than the US? Well, given the sheer scale of the US losses and the fact that the banking sector there has compounded our problems it seems a little silly. But, in terms of the final toll this cycle takes on our respective economies, there remains a real threat that we could be hit harder than the US.
Usually our little New Zealand syndrome makes us proud to see the country making headlines in the foreign media - particularly for something other than sport.
But the size of our recession is one area where we don't want to be leading the world.
Liam Dann, NZ Herald Business Editor
