Oct
5
With the high interest that New Zealand is offering on it’s bonds, at 7.25% per annum, and unlikely to go down anytime in the near future, the NZD has risen against the USD.
Sep
12
New Zealand dollar stable, Aussie dollar slowly rising
Filed Under Foreign Currency | Leave a Comment
The New Zealand dollar ( NZD ) has seen some losses over the last year, due in part to a high interest rate and in the initial months of 2006, fell quite dramatically. However, it seems to be stabilising, and may, optimistically, rise over the next year or so.
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar, buoyed by a strong economy and exports, seems to be doing well, on a bullish run, and is a good bet for foreign investment.
Jul
30
Is virtual gold real?
Filed Under Virtual | Leave a Comment
At last count, millions play mmorpgs. From the massively popular World of Warcraft, to the cutesy Maplestory, the new SilkRoadOnline and others like Everquest and Lineage 2, the count is increasing daily. And WoW boasts at least 500 thousand players online minimum at any one time.
Visit eBay, Yahoo! Auctions and any other major auction site and inevitably, there are virtual game items and virtual game gold for sale. Not cheap too. Reportedly, some people can make a living out of these virtual jobs, whether it is mining virtual gold or doing power leveling for virtual characters. It’s even been the subject of several mini virtual cross border disputes where some US players blamed Chinese players cooped up in a LAN sweat shop with a 56k connection of mining non stop for gold to sell for money.
Like any thing else in economics, I believe it boils down to market demand and supply. For as long as people are willing to pay a few hundred to get someone to level their game character, there will be someone willing to do it.
And while most game companies claim ownership over all virtual items in the game, inevitably, people who are desperate enough for a highly sought after item will pay good cash for it.
So, play on, I say. The game companies are definitely winning, looking at the relatively low running costs they bear in comparison with the size of their client base, and the amount of money they are rolling in.
So much so, that the tax officials are looking seriously at how to tax your character’s online possessions. Yeah, be prepared to pay yearly taxes on that +18 Sword of the Rock.
And let the game companies keep improving the games, to hook us all till kingdom come.
Jul
23
Hot industries
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Property, if well chosen will always give good returns. Granted, different criteria matter for residential versus commercial, but location will always be important, as well as accessibility. Retail shopfronts with high human traffic will always guarantee good returns. Which is why REITs ( real estate investment trusts ) consistently bank on popular shopping malls to drive their profits.
 Google is doing well, and eventually their profit growth will slow down, but they are likely to remain profitable for a long time to come. Ditto Microsoft.
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