Money, money, money

What happens to the NZ dollar if Donald Trump sacks the Federal Reserve Bank of America (FED) and nationalises it?

New Zealand abandoned the pound sterling in 1967 in favour of the dollar and come 1971-73 America abandoned the gold standard (temporarily), giving the FED and banking system complete control of money creation.

Now, some 45 years later, a bill to reinstate the gold standard was submitted to American Congress on March 22 when monetary reforms were meant to be concluded in New Zealand.

Donald Trump shows every inclination to eradicate the central banking system and is known to be a gold buff. But how does a new system deal with current public debt? Debt could be monetised by increasing the value of gold or defaulted on with trade held to a new gold standard.

Is New Zealand a sovereign nation or not? John Key had us vote for our identity (flag) but it is our monetary system that makes us sovereign. The key question about a return to the gold standard as a sovereign and trading nation is: ‘‘Does money creation for deficit spending get created as debt or debt-free?’’

My theory has always been that inflation could be driven down to zero if government could issue money directly into the economy at zero interest. If New Zealand had a monetary authority acting for it instead of a central bank, then government would control the quantity of money and consumer spending power without falling into a liquidity trap because it would no longer be necessary to rely on banks’ willingness to lend or buy bonds at interest. This would improve our politics.

Steve Laurence, Egmont Village

I once stayed in a hotel that straddled the Queensland-NSW border and there was an hour difference in the time at opposite ends of the building.

Media Council

It’s more than a month now since this year’s daylight saving was introduced and it’s significant that the event now seems to create little or no controversy, unlike when the measure was trialled in 1974 and introduced the following year.

At that time there was some quite vociferous opposition to putting the clocks forward by an hour in spring, particularly from dairy farmers who objected to having to get up an hour ‘‘earlier’’ to milk their cows.

In the ensuing 40-odd years this opposition has dwindled but, according to a New Zealand Government website, 41 per cent of dairy farmers still disapprove of the switch from NZ Standard Time every September.

However, the general public is now very much in favour of the measure, a survey in 2008 revealing 81 per cent of Kiwis welcomed daylight saving.

So, while we have put the DST controversy to bed, it’s still very much a controversial issue in other parts of the world.

Only last week Morocco suddenly decided to stay on permanent daylight saving time – only a couple of days before the clocks were due to go back.

And the debate is very much on again in Britain where, just as UK residents put their clocks back last weekend, debate raged over a European Union proposal to put an end to the biannual ritual and have a unified EU time.

As if the UK wasn’t mired in enough hullabaloo over Brexit, this latest proposal from Brussels has lit the touchpaper of another fierce wrangle.

At present in summer, Britain has a one-hour time difference with most of the EU and this is seen as a barrier to frictionless trade.

For instance, while it might be 9am in Paris or