Otago households are beginning to feel real financial pressure as the country is said to be slipping into recession.
Many of the factors involved in this come from overseas and there is little that can be done, but in some areas, such as energy supply, we have real opportunities to shield ourselves from what will surely eventuate.
Although house prices are weakening, interest rates remain high; there is little that can be done about a global credit crisis.
Food prices are soaring. Milk and cheese prices are being driven up by a booming export market, while other food costs have been inflated by the headlong conversion of land and the diversion of food crops to biofuel in the food-baskets of the world. The destruction of natural forests to create palm-oil plantations concerns me greatly.
Inevitably, it is the poorest people, globally and in our society, who are most hurt by this.
More than anything, though, it is the cost of energy, and especially petrol, that has been seen as the most dramatic, as crude oil shot to prices unheard of before.
At the same time, we have been looking apprehensively at the hydro lakes and wondering how well we will survive winter demand. Thus, both motor fuel and electricity have become vulnerable and expensive.
A recent drop in crude oil prices should not be seen as a sign that the worst is over. Peak Oil is a reality, whether it was last year or still years in the future; it is inevitable that scarcity and booming global demand will keep prices high.
Not only that, but crude oil is hugely sensitive to factors over which we have little control. Storms in the Caribbean, rebel threats in Nigeria, a military exercise close to Iran and straight speculation have had enormous influences on spot prices.
More importantly, most of those factors are associated with something even more important than price - security of supply. The world's oil producing regions are politically tense, most of the major supply lines are vulnerable to blockade or other military action.
I, for one, would not want to bet on the long-term stability and goodwill of much of the Middle East, Nigeria, Venezuela or other oil-producing regions. In times of great scarcity, small remote nations are not going to be first in line for whatever supplies there might be.
Energy security is paramount; but what can New Zealand do to enhance this?
We can begin by adjusting our lives by walking and cycling more, using more fuel-efficient vehicles and using public transport, especially where it is electrically driven. In this context, the taking back of the railways, as a strategic asset, might well be a very wise decision.
There are possibilities for alternative fuels, especially in our region. If cost-effective bio-fuels can be developed, without impairing food production, then well and good. Sooner or later fuel cells or hydrogen may fill the gap, but there is a local resource that we should be turning to right now.
Southland and Otago contain lignite and coal resources that could meet the nation's motor fuel needs for many decades; the technology is well-proven and, while low crude prices after the mid 1980s ruled them out temporarily as too expensive, surely they are economic now.
More importantly, these are on-shore resources that we control ourselves and, in a time of vulnerability, that is a very big advantage.