Asset sales to pay down debt

Well, no, they won't despite the Governments insistence. Not a dollar from the sale of our assets will go where National has been promising it will - they simply aren't telling the truth. Tim Watkin @ Pundit explains - and it's not a difficult thing to do, why Key, English and especially Ryall, as seen on Q&A this morning, are bullshitting us (please excuse the farming language).

"At the heart of its argument is debt. As Steven Joyce said again in parliament this week, mixed ownership is "about controlling the nation's debt".
But now Ryall admits that the profits from Mighty River Power won't be used to pay down a single cent of debt. Nope, no debt will be paid off thanks to this sale (and presumably the others). The only way these sales tackle our public debt is that they save us from borrowing more money for schools, hospitals and KiwiRail."

" So the debt argument just doesn't stack up.
But it's worse than that. Not only do the sales not pay down any debt, the loss of dividends from these companies must ultimately mean more debt somewhere down the track.
Bernard Hickey pointed out to me this week that over the past ten years the companies primed for sale have delivered a return on capital of 16%. Government borrowing is currently near an all-time low, at around 3.5%. So we're sacrificing 16% to save us 3.5%? How does that make economic sense?"

The asset sales trade-off - a lose-lose.