The global financial collapse has left National Party leader John Key scrambling for a point of difference with Labour in next month's election, and it could be as simple as the old "time for a change".
The continuing economic meltdown forced Mr Key to release a scaled down version of his economic plan and tax cuts, leaving mainly philosophical differences, rather than economic issues, separating the two major parties.
The lower borrowing, together with the rebalancing of the tax package and the cancellation of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mfat) and Trade's expansion plans, meant National was able to project lower operating deficits and an almost identical debt track to that which Labour was projecting, Mr Key said.
Mr Key acknowledged in the release of his econo-mic management plan that National had been caught by changing economic circumstances.
"We have made some changes to our tax package in light of the news dished up in Monday's Pre-Election Financial Update. We had planned to more aggressively reduce the top personal tax rate over the next three years.
"But we are being realistic about what is affordable in light of the mess Labour will be leaving behind it."
If Mr Key leads the next government after the November 8 election, he and his finance spokesman, Bill English, will inherit a vastly different economic landscape from the one Prime Minister Helen Clark and Finance Minister Michael Cullen inherited in 1999.
More than eight years of global economic growth has stopped.
A worldwide recession looms but in New Zealand, the recession is already here and likely to remain for 18 months.
The rot started in the United States and the Federal Reserve was yesterday forced to step forward as a commercial lender of last resort while also signalling a readiness to cut interest rates as shares spun lower for a fifth straight day.
The $US700 billion bail-out ($1.12 trillion) fund has failed to calm markets.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the US economy was being battered by a financial crisis of "historic dimension" and the risk for inflation had eased with falling prices for oil and other commodities.
Yesterday, the British Government announced a 50 billion ($NZ140 billion) bail-out of its banking system, involving eight major banks, after shares in some institutions fell up to 39%.
As part of the package, a further 200 billion will be made available by the Bank of England for short-term borrowing to provide liquidity to banks and building societies.
The Bank of England was expected to respond by slashing its lending rate overnight.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed another 6% yesterday.
That broad measure of the US stock market has now dropped 15% over five days, its weakest run since 1987.
Japan's Nikkei index fell about 4% in early trading.
The NZX-50 ended down nearly 2%.
Earlier, Rus-sia negotiated an emergency bail-out for Iceland and unveiled an aid package for its own banks.
The Reserve Bank of Australia stunned markets with its steepest interest rate cut in 16 years.
Iceland, facing a threat of "national bankruptcy", took over its second-largest bank and propped up a battered currency.
At ground zero in the crisis, the interbank lending market re-mained stalled, with the cost of borrowing US dollars, euros and sterling all higher.
Mr Key said the events that had unfolded in international markets over recent weeks were testing the framework that had served the international finance sector over many decades.
"The world is not certain about precisely what lies ahead. The decline in the fiscal forecast has made it necessary for us to re-visit our earlier plans and we have done so responsibly and been straight-up about it."
