Double Dipton’s doublethink

Written By: - Date published: 12:48 pm, October 17th, 2013 - 41 comments
Categories: superannuation - Tags:

Bill English praised the Cullen Fund on its 10th anniversary yesterday: “The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is recognised as one of the best-structured sovereign wealth funds in the world”. He noted it has achieved an average return of 8.84%, well above its target. He failed to mention that he opposed the Fund being created and that he suspended contributions to the Fund at the worst possible time.  And he still doesn’t want to resume them for 7 years.

41 comments on “Double Dipton’s doublethink ”

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  1. tc 1
    17 October 2013 at 12:59 pm

    Love it when they load the gun like that. Bill fancies his chances after Shonkey then does he.

  2. ghostwhowalksnz 2
    17 October 2013 at 1:16 pm

    Bills had second case of deja-vue in addition to the Cullen Fund.

    Back in 2012 he was daring Labour to “buy back” the power company shares if they opposed asset sales !

    • ghostwhowalksnz 2.1
      17 October 2013 at 2:33 pm

      Au contraire, investment funds like this are normally best if you keep contributing.

      You will never be able to time the market, if thats what you are suggesting.

      But of course buying low is allways a winning strategy

    • Rogue Trooper 2.2
      17 October 2013 at 6:02 pm

      lol at the “buy back”.

  3. tamati 3
    17 October 2013 at 1:22 pm

    To say he ended the contributions at the worst possible time is pretty harsh. Investment decisions are very easy with the benefit of hindsight.

    • richard 3.1
      17 October 2013 at 1:43 pm

      So you agree that ending the contributions was a bad decision?

    • ScottGN 3.2
      17 October 2013 at 1:43 pm

      Where’s the hindsight? English was told what would happen when he suspended contributions to the fund and that is exactly what has happened.

      • tamati 3.2.1
        17 October 2013 at 1:46 pm

        The hindsight is that stock markets have had an extremely good run over the past 4 years and when English suspended the contributions that was far from certain.

        • Lanthanide 3.2.1.1
          17 October 2013 at 1:50 pm

          Yip. It’s quite possible the stock markets could have just sat around and not risen at all, or just bumped around.

          Things could easily have been very different if the Eurozone issues were handled differently or had a different outcome, or if the US had gone over the fiscal cliff, etc.

          • tamati 3.2.1.1.1
            17 October 2013 at 1:56 pm

            A prudent investor continually invests small amounts over time, when they can afford to do so. He was right to suspend the contributions when he did, we have far more important things to invest in. It should be priority number one when we return to surplus.

            • Saarbo 3.2.1.1.1.1
              17 October 2013 at 2:22 pm

              Average return 8.4%. What are our borrowing costs???

              • Tamati …
                17 October 2013 at 4:19 pm

                Our borrowing costs are the cost of capital each taxpayer forgoes when they pay tax. Not the treasury bond yield.

                Average return is the past, who knows what it will be in the future.

          • Lightly 3.2.1.1.2
            17 October 2013 at 2:40 pm

            unless you believed that capitalism was coming to its end, then the sharemarkets were always going to recover long before the Cullen Fund had to start paying out. Sure, the last 4 years have been stronger than people would have thought but they were always going to pick up at some point before 2030.

            Buy low is the first rule of investing and as a multi-generational investor, the Cullen Fund has the luxury of time on its hands.

            • Tamati 3.2.1.1.2.1
              17 October 2013 at 4:23 pm

              “Buy low, sell high” isn’t investment, it’s speculation.

            • Rogue Trooper 3.2.1.1.2.2
              17 October 2013 at 6:18 pm

              just on the subject of multi-generational investment, one of the new local mayor’s arguments is that rates should be held at present levels or reduced, as ” future generations “will be getting a free ride” on amenities and infrastructure developed now. Yep, he’s a Boomer, got where he is today through shear merit and his Post Office Savings account.
              Time stands still for some cohorts!

      • Rodel 3.2.2
        17 October 2013 at 9:58 pm

        What surprises me is that among many people there is still the feeling that English is competent..How can that be?

    • Saarbo 3.3
      17 October 2013 at 2:07 pm

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_cost_averaging

      Refer to the above Tamati. Its not hindsight, its basic financial strategy/theory.

      • tamati 3.3.1
        17 October 2013 at 2:15 pm

        I know what dollar cost averaging is.

        As I said before, we had more important this to invest in at the time so it was prudent to suspend contributions.

        • Saarbo 3.3.1.1
          17 October 2013 at 2:26 pm

          No it wasn’t, it was another decision that proves that this National government has no idea how to get the most out of the economy. English runs the economy like cow cocky’s run their farms, in hard times they hide the cheque book…we need a government with a bit more sophistication than that.

          • Tamati 3.3.1.1.1
            17 October 2013 at 4:21 pm

            Christchurch needed water, sewerage and electricity more than an 8.4% return on investment.

            • wtl 3.3.1.1.1.1
              17 October 2013 at 4:23 pm

              And the rich needed those tax cuts. To buy fancy cars, mansions, overseas holidays and shares in our SOEs.

            • Rob 3.3.1.1.1.2
              17 October 2013 at 4:40 pm

              Well Tamati that puts a whole load of reality around this.

              • McFlock …
                17 October 2013 at 4:49 pm

                Fucking bullshit – the nats suspended payments in 2009 to (inadequately) finance their personal tax cuts.

                Tamati is essentially claiming that key and blinglish have the power to predict earthquakes. That might sound like reality to the cheerleaders on planet key, but really it’s just hiding behind corpses to justify a spectacularly wrong decision.

                Tories swimming deeper in the sewer…

                • Tamati …
                  17 October 2013 at 6:25 pm

                  I not claiming that Bill English can predict earthquakes or that John Key can walk on water. All I’m saying is that there were better investments to make throughout the 2009-2013 period than making contributions to the super fund. Rebuilding Christchurch was an example. We we return to surplus we should promptly resume contributions.

                  • McFlock …
                    17 October 2013 at 6:39 pm

                    Try an example that they had any chance of knowing about when they cancelled a major investment in our future, then.

                  • One Anonymous Knucklehead …
                    17 October 2013 at 6:39 pm

                    Um, no. They voluntarily slashed their revenue and spun a bunch of policy gobshite to justify it.

            • ScottGN 3.3.1.1.1.3
              17 October 2013 at 5:43 pm

              What are you talking about? Are you suggesting that English cancelled contributions to the Cullen Fund in 2009 in anticipation of the 2010 earthquake?

            • Saarbo 3.3.1.1.1.4
              17 October 2013 at 7:57 pm

              Then borrow it at 3% and bank the differential.

              Dont ever forget Tamati, Cullen left New Zealand with one of the strongest Balance Sheets in the developed world.

              • Colonial Viper …
                17 October 2013 at 9:37 pm

                Not entirely true. What Cullen did in essence was move debt from the Government balance sheet to the private sector balance sheet.

                Govt debt went low, private sector debt (especially mortgage debt) skyrocketed.

  4. Dv 4
    17 October 2013 at 1:30 pm

    AND is this morinngs Stuff? He is saying the economy needs planning!!!!
    Theyve only had 5 years!!!

  5. geoff 5
    17 October 2013 at 2:10 pm

    When are we going to hear something from David Parker?

  6. finbar 6
    17 October 2013 at 2:21 pm

    Listening to the Dipton dipper yesterday reminded me of his dipping into the public purse to the tune of almost $400,000,rental rort that he got sprung on.How much did the dipper pay back $40 0dd thousand.

  7. tricldrown 7
    17 October 2013 at 9:09 pm

    Tamati tax cuts to those who are well off.
    Short term thinking from greedy selfish retards.
    The bulge of baby boomers coming the taxpayers way is going to cost a lot more if wr leave it to the last minute.
    Not only do we get the compounded interest but all those investments pay tax to the govt as well a win win.
    Without Cullens foresight this govts books would look very sick.

  8. greywarbler 8
    18 October 2013 at 11:50 am

    I was, stupidly, amazed to hear Dippy state that private could do things better than public and how it was a good idea that the government didn’t have any elderly beds and that Ryman did it so well and of course better than government.

    Mad. And the profit for Ryman comes from grinding down the poor and responsible women and men workers. They take responsibility for doing the personal care of the helpless and the shells of people, for below living wages. They do an unpleasant job with impossible demands of standards and duties, and for which they will be villified if they can’t do everything, get driven to distraction and do something wrong.

    Especially hard is to work with the violent and perhaps drivelling, incontinent, out of their brain ‘clients’ with senility. These workers are privately taking what should be a nationwide responsibility.

    But in Ayn Rand’s world commitment to charity and self sacrifice comes with its own reward and therefore money isn’t needed. In fact in that topsy-turvy world, the less committed you are to doing a good job and the people you should be cognisant of, the more you get paid. The Red Queen, was it, who believed six impossible things before breakfast. Lewis Carroll did us a favour when he created his analogous weird worlds.

    But Bill English considers that responsible and effective social care. Pay them as little as possible and shout that as a triumph of efficient capitalism done in the modern way. It’s just so 19th century Bill.

    And he waxes euphoric that the modern way now is the private public partnership. These NACTs are dangerously addicted to alliteration I think.

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