Will the NZ economy be insulated from the worst effects of the global financial crisis?

AP Photo / Henny Ray Abrams

Opinion

Stock markets slumped worldwide overnight, some marking record one-day drops, on fears the global financial crisis will worsen and hit the wider economy despite bank bailouts in the US and Europe.

The Dow Jones industrials skidded more than 700 points and fell below 10,000 for the first time in four years, while the credit markets remained under strain.

Investors around the world have come to the sobering realisation that the Bush administration's US$700 billion rescue plan won't work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets. Global banks, hobbled by wrong-way bets on mortgage securities, remain starved for cash as credit has dried up.

Will the NZ economy be insulated from the worst effects of the global financial crisis? Here is the latest selection of Your Views: