I did not know NZ declared bankruptcy. I know that in the 1980s its government was pressured into making drastic cuts by the IMF so that Friedmanites could privatize every government service they could get their hands on, but I did not hear of NZ defaulting on any loans, which is what bankruptcy usually means.
Interestingly after bamboozling NZ into line the same technique was used in Canada - hence the wave of privatization that swept provinces like Alberta. Sadly all the so- called "reforms" did was result in higher costs for the average citizen and fewer and less efficient government services.
NZ did not declare bankruptcy... it was used as a test ground by the forces of Nitwit and Evil to see if said threats might scare a modern Anglo-Western society into handing over the profitable parts of government keeping taxes low into the hands of a few for that few to reap all those profits privately for themselves. Back in caveman days, when even the littlest bit of cooperation could mean survival versus death, Nitwits and Evils were kicked out and/or killed the instant identified, but we've become tolerant and somewhat mentally shellacked by the Beta-brains wishing they were Alphas.
NZ was, and still is, used as a "modern Anglo-Western" test ground.
It's a small, out of the way modern Anglo-Western society where if something doesn't work it's easy to backtrack until it's right before unleashing it upon the big Anglo-Western societies.
For example, NZ's telecommunications are always bleeding-edge state-of-the-art.
The big Telco's roll out their hottest new stuff there first in order to measure the market impact and to gauge popular acceptance and to find bugs.
When it passes the NZ test, then it's rolled out to the larger members of Echelon.
Likewise, sociopolitical experiments are done there too, such that it was found that even though NZ had the highest percentage of PHd's of any among the modern Western-Anglo tradition, they still let 20-something fat boobs be appointed minister of medicine to fume with his fat red lips before a camera about how it's not a "right" to have life-long health-care (of course it's not, but that's the whole thing about being human... we can organize to *make* that a right).
After NZ was brought down without a whimper, it was unleashed upon Canada and Australia.
