The economy

Press, 21 October 1978, Page 9

The economy

Sir, — Heather Smith (October 19) seems to have a fair grasp of our domestic economic situation but she does not mention the unprecedented overseas debt, its cause, nor its possible consequences. Our country’s population is far less than that of numerous individual cities around the world, yet we are up to our neck in unresolvable commitments. If it is true that we are now borrowing to pay off interest on previous massive loans we must eventually be forced to imitate that pathetic bird of mythology which flew blithely around an invisible axis- in ever faster decreasing tight circles until it finally consumed itself. I confidently predict a substantial devaluation of the New Zealand dollar before, or during, the first quarter of the new financial year, for, no matter which party assumes power here, our real economic masters, the international bankers, will demand it. — Yours, etc.,

ARTHUR MAY. October 19, 1978.

Sir, — Seeing that the last three years of the National Government have utterly surpassed in horror the memory of the previous three under Labour, I hardly see the point of reading the much-touted pamphlet recommended by J. F. Garvey. Mr Muldoon’s appointment as chairman of the 1.M.F., if an honour, as J. F. Garvey would have us believe, is a dubious one, a reward, as a faithful servant of the big international financial interests who hold us in thrall, for services which have inflicted on the great majority of New Zealanders, impoverishment, austerity, and hardship through a lowered standard of living and unemployment. —Yours, etc..

M. CREEL. October 20, 1978.