Andrew Dickens Afternoons

It's been a week since I was on the radio. It's been one of the worst weeks in New Zealand as Cyclone Gabrielle did its worst in areas that were not expecting it. There's much to talk about the present but talk has started about the future. To fix our battered country up is going to take a lot of money. 13 billion was Grant Robertson's first forecast. Where do we find that? Over summer I was bailed up by a grandfather who felt for his grandchildren who were being lumbered with a crippling debt because of this bloody socialist government. I said the debt is not that bad in reality. This weekend Stephen Toplis the BNZ economist talked about our current debt to GDP target of 21.4%. Currently we're about 30 percent. Now to give you some context on that debt. Japan tops the list at over 250% debt to GDP, The United States is around 120%, Canada 110%, the UK at 100%.  Now sure, these are not levels to aspire to. So let's look at our brothers Australia. They're on 36%. My point is that we're not the macro financial