It's not hard to understand why business confidence surveys report significant pessimism.

Pessimism about New Zealand's short-term economic prospects and wariness about big spending commitments underlie the fall in consumer confidence.

With the year off and just getting back into it, you're more susceptible, your body's not as hard as it usually is. You got to develop some of those calluses again, that pain tolerance. But everybody's got to go through it. It happens. For me, it's inevitable -- it's just the way that I play -- that I'm going to get banged up.

understand and report back on what happened and why.

'Sesame Street's' genius lies in finding gentle ways to talk about hard things - death, divorce, danger - in terms that children understand and accept.

This concern suggests it will take a lot of strength to get the Fed to tighten beyond 5 per cent.