Monday, February 13

Greek Austerity Voted In

The votes are in and Greece's parliament has passed its fresh austerity bill, despite riots lighting up Athens' streets. The bill outlined the austerity measures necessary for the Troika's (IMF & EU) 130 Billion Euro bailout, and they weren't popular with locals.

Around 100 000 people descended on parliament to protest the bill which includes a huge cut to public service jobs as well as the minimum wage. In a country where youth unemployment is already at 48% it is a drastic move and sparked riots across the city.

The next step is for Greece to secure its deal with private creditors who will assist with the debt-relief effort.

Banks Take The Rate Rise Plunge

The heat on Australian banks has been turned up even more from the outset of this week with the Government continuing to oppose the Big Four's rate rises. Last week ANZ was first off the blocks raising their variable home loan rate by 0.06 of a percentage point, quickly followed by Westpac who went a whole 0.10 of a percentage point.

This week we await the decision of Commonwealth and NAB to see if they join the club. It has been a year since NAB gave their Valentines "break up" campaign stating they would have a lower rate than the other banks, so it is expected that if they instill a rate rise it will still maintain a lower rate.

Treasurer Wayne Swan and his assistant Mark Arbib over the weekend have indicated that banks are experiencing an easing of funding costs and therefore have no reason to be raising interest rates when the RBA decided to hold them steady last week. On Wednesday the Commonwealth will report a half-year profit which many expect to be to the tune of $3.5 Billion.

While some are starting to question whether the Government should intervene in the rate rise, Swan indicates he is not keen for regulated interest rates, something which hasn't happened in almost 3 decades.

_______________________________________________________

Friday, February 10

Home owners nationwide are awaiting the ANZ decision today on whether it will raise its own interest rates despite the RBA holding its even at 4.25% earlier this week. If ANZ make the increase, its expected the other banks will follow.

The gap between official rates and the banks' rates has been growing to now be over 3%, equalling a $40 000 margin over the lifetime of the average mortgage. The average standard variable rate is 7.3%.

But even if you don't get hit with the home loan rate, you're not out of the woods. It's likely the banks will pass on the rate rise in other, more stealthy areas such as business loans, credit card loans, and overdrafts. 

An agreement has been struck between Greece and the European Central Bank (ECB), while the deal between the nation and its private creditors edges even closer. While details of the deal between the Government and the Troika (IMF, ECB & EU) are so far unknown, ECB President Mario Draghi earlier today received a phone call from Greek PM Lucas Papademos confirming they had come to an agreement.

The ECB has been vital to the stabilisation of the zone, buying 40 Billion Euro worth of Greek bonds since 2010, but now it's up to the private sector creditors to come to some sort of agreement.

iPad 3 is coming! Rumours are flooding the internet about the release of the newest edition of the world-dominating tablet set for early March in San Francisco. It's just 2 years since the first iPad was released, with number 2 hitting stores in March last year.

This 3rd model will be faster, have more processing power and as always will dazzle us with plenty of new features. The 15.4 Million iPads sold in the December quarter is double the number from the year before, indicating that despite competitors nipping at its heels, Apple's tablet still has a monopoly. 

Global markets are strengthening with the positive advances in Europe. 

Greek unemployment has jumped to 20%, with youth unemployment rocketing to 48%, as a result of tighter austerity measures from Government resulting in job cuts. Spain is in even more trouble, with overall unemployment at 22% and that of the youth at 49%.

It's the worst in Europe, and for both countries it could have a devastating effect on a whole sector of the workforce. By comparison, Germany and Austria have an unemployment rate of a healthy 5.5% and 4.1% respectively.

Is a zebra white with black stripes, or black with white stripes? For years different theories had existed about the purpose of the stripes of a zebra, but a team of European scientists think they have the answer. They have concluded through their new research that the reason for a zebra's stripes is actually a mechanism for avoiding the savage horse flies.

Zebras actually begin life with dark skin and develop the white stripes over time, according to the scientists, to ward off the flies which are attracted to darker horses. 

The New Orleans NBA team The Hornets recruited Will Ferrell for one night only to introduce the teams onto the court. His introductions of the visiting Chicago Bulls were not exactly inspiring for the away team but certainly had the crowd laughing. Watch here