I do live in Marton, but it does seem rather strange they are talking of opening up to group 4 at the end of this month when they are a long way off completing group 3.
It appears to me this is just a play on politics to make it appear that everything is going to plan when it is obviously not.
ROBERT CONDER
Marton
Printing money not a radical act
Garth Scown has surprised me.
Usually the author of well-considered letters, this time (End of capitalism? Chronicle, July 24) he is so wrong I struggle to believe it.
Firstly, if government money printing was evidence of a socialist or communist government, then the US government would be close to extreme left wing!
Printing money does not create debt, but it does create obligations.
Obligations on what is achieved with that money.
As the sovereign owner of the NZ dollar, our government can "print" as much of it as it likes.
But doing so does not come without cost.
Word limits prevent a thorough discussion, but the costs that come with printing money are complex.
We are told the Government must tax to spend, but as the owner of the dollar, this is not true.
The ability to "print" money effectively changes the purpose of taxation.
Taxation becomes a means to direct or influence behaviour, or manage the functioning of markets, and also to influence the amount of money in circulation.
Since Richard Nixon dumped the gold standard in 1971, what determines the value of any currency becomes quite amorphous, but the amount of currency in circulation is one of just many factors that influence its value.
Quality of government is another, as is business certainty, size of the economy and others.
Heather Marion Smith is very correct in the perspectives she puts forwards, under the Social Credit banner.
Garth Scown would be well served to consider the message rather than judge it based on the labels behind the messenger.
MURRAY SHAW
Bastia Hill
