US Ambassador Mike Moore posted on Twitter that Washington DC is now taking a battering. “The trees in Washington don’t like the wind … and it’s about Wellington windy right now,” he tweeted. The New Zealand Embassy in Washington has been closed and the country’s consulate in New York is also shut. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says …

GLOBAL MARKETS: Our London colleagues report that it was all about Hurricane Sandy overnight  with the closure of many markets, including the bond market. With trading on US Treasuries closed and further bad headlines and data out of Europe , German bunds were very well supported, as were Australasian bonds. There is still no official opening time for the CME …

The NZ Government issued its response to the Productivity Commission’s report on housing affordability. “High house prices matter because many New Zealanders spend a large portion of their incomes on housing and that has helped fuel household debt and contribute to damaging imbalances in the economy,” Finance Minister Bill English says. “In particular, high housing debt diverts money from more …