In 2001, Ian Wishart's book on the state asset sales of the 80s and 90s, and the collapse of the BNZ Bank, rocketed into the bestseller lists nationwide. Now, ten years later, Wishart brings a major update, covering massive taxpayer bailouts when some of those privatised assets subsequently collapsed, and the influence and agenda of global forces behind the latest financial crash.

With John Key's National Government putting state asset sales back on the agenda, there's never been a better time to read a book like this...

READ EXTRACT

 

SELECTED QUOTES 

"The Business Roundtable and people like that are running this country for their benefit. They are stealing from guys like you every day of the week, and if you look hard enough you can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt..." - former CEO, major NZ bank

THE NEW BOOK ON THE COMING FINANCIAL MELTDOWN

As Europe’s banks and governments teeter on the edge of total financial collapse, how many New Zealanders know our government has drafted plans to raid people’s personal bank accounts if the worst comes to the worst over here?

 

Kiwis have already been stung for billions in a string of finance company collapses, and have retreated to storing their money in banks, but what happens if a world financial crisis ignites overnight while you are sleeping?:

 

“For the market incentive approach to banking supervision to work, the possibility that a large bank could fail, and that creditors could lose some of their money, has to be credible. This policy has become even more relevant in the post 2008 crisis period where regulators around the world have begun to revisit the role of creditors in absorbing some of the losses when banks fail. The ‘too big to fail’ perception will always have credence if people believe that a government will always bail out a large bank…” – RESERVE BANK BRIEFING FOR BANKS

 

What they’re planning for is a process called “haircutting”, where bank customers could find their personal accounts frozen while they sleep, indefinitely.

 

“The proportion of their funds to be frozen or which remains inaccessible will be based on an estimation of the losses following a conservative assessment of the net asset deficiency incurred by the failing bank, plus a suitable buffer.” – RESERVE BANK

 

The good news is that if you have secured deposits, you “might” be OK. If it’s just an ordinary bank account, however, you could be left penniless:

 

“The haircut process has no impact on the ranking of creditors that would apply in a conventional liquidation. Secured creditors would be able to look to their security to ensure that they are, in effect, paid in full (assuming their security is adequate), while subordinated creditors would not receive any payment unless the senior creditors were paid in full.”

 

Want to know more and how it could affect you? It’s all in the new 2012 edition of DAYLIGHT ROBBERY.

 

Did you know our modern international banking system is founded on the “TInkerbell Principle” – it only works as long as enough people keep believing in it. Details of how banking really works are laid bare in this book – and it’s crucial information everyone with a credit card, bank loan or bank account needs to know.

 

AND IF YOU’VE GOT KIWISAVER, DAYLIGHT ROBBERY IS A MUST-READ

 

“The more money they compulsorily pluck from the pockets of wage-earners, the more likely they are to start funding riskier investments, once all the secure investments have already been snapped up.

 

“It works like this. If the value of the top 40 companies is one trillion dollars, and you have $1.5 trillion at your disposal, you are going to end up buying second tier assets to soak up the surplus. As the money keeps flowing in from salary packets each week, you have to keep justifying your existence as a fund manager by investing it in something – anything – just to prove you are doing your job. Theoretically there could come a point where all this spare cash floating around causes another boom-bust cycle and ordinary wage earners lose a big chunk of their superannuation savings.

 

“A lot of European banks, when faced with burgeoning deposits in the nineties and 2000s, lent it out to European governments like Greece, Portugal and others, in “sovereign debt” or what we call in this country government bonds. Supposedly sovereign debt is as secure as it gets, but the world is learning that ain’t so. Even governments are no longer paying their bills, and a monster day of reckoning is looming in the near future.

 

“The default Kiwisaver providers clocked up funds earnings of only $104 million for the year, and charged a whopping $43 million in fees to their clients. Even the providers you can choose yourself were charging fees of around 28% on your Kiwisaver earnings. Then, of course, you pay tax on your earnings as well. For some poor schmucks contributing to Kiwisaver, the amount they end up with from every $100 they earn through the fund might be as low as $25 depending on your marginal tax rate. The remaining $75 will have gone through fees and taxes.

 

“It’s no wonder that financial commentators everywhere are plugging Kiwisaver for all they are worth. The financial markets will benefit greatly from being able to clip the ticket.”

 

 A critically-acclaimed author:

"Wishart presents facts he can totally substantiate, and leaves readers to draw some obvious conclusions...compelling, revealing and worrying reading" - Bay of Plenty Times

"Without peer in this country as an investigative journalist ...painstaking research...pacy narrative"- City Voice

"Exceptionally thorough...skilfully blends official documents with his own observations...a more informative picture than could ever have been possible in the daily media" - Evening Standard