ANZ and National cut their 6 month mortgage rates to 5.99% from 6.35%

"The Reserve Bank has previously said it will reverse last month's 50 basis point rate cut once the rebuilding in the wake of the February 22 earthquake in Christchurch starts in earnest."

that'll be sometime in 2025 then.

Expect a lower OCR in the meantime before ChCh is forgotten but not rebuilt in the next year or so.

Seven months since the first quake and they haven't even revisited building codes or done anything useful.

Six weeks since the second and they haven't even reopened streets with no danger of anything falling.

There are faster turtles out there.

Olly right again as usual:

link:

http://www.empowereducation.com/Olly_column_Jan2010.bz

He was predicting inflation and hyper inflation months ago and now the most ultra conservative heavy hitters are saying the same.

Lower and lower interest rates are the harbinger of things to come.

If interest rates should rise then inflation is here for sure.

Each way the property owng class wins and the smuggeroo renters lose.



If you haven’t got some  property, preferably income producing, then it’s almost too late.



 



"Fund manager predicts inflation disaster

 by Niko Kloeten

NBR 4/4/11

 

 

The worldwide inflationary bubble will cause more economic carnage than all the recent natural disasters put together, Tower Investments chief executive Sam Stubbs says.



Global markets have been hit recently by a number of natural and man-made shocks, such as earthquakes in Christchurch and Japan, as well as political turmoil in a number of Middle Eastern countries, Libya in particular, that has been blamed for pushing up oil prices.



But according to Mr Stubbs, the biggest worry by far for financial markets is nothing that’s happening in any one particular country.



“The biggest worry is that nearly every country in the developed world is printing money like crazy and keeping interest rates artificially low.”



This, he said, has inflated a financial bubble that’s waiting to pop.



“Inflation or restructure is inevitable because you can’t keep printing money forever without consequences.”



As a result of all the money printing, Tower is a “nervous investor” in shares, Mr Stubbs said, adding that Tower is “slowly but surely” de-risking its portfolio.



“No asset class is cheap at the moment because there’s so much money being printed and such low interest rates that people have to take on more and more risk to get the same amount of return.”



Rather than “removing the punchbowl” central bankers are “spiking the punch,” Mr Stubbs said.



“We’re moving on to shots now but we’re probably getting towards the end of the evening.”



The main issue, he said, is how to protect portfolios against the ravages of high inflation when it arrives.



According to Mr Stubbs, the two asset classes that are most reliable during an inflationary period are property and commodities.



He said leveraged property in particular benefits from inflation because the cost of the debt decreases in real terms while the value of the property tends to rise with inflation.



Equities can also be a good asset class to invest in but “only early on in the inflationary cycle,” he said.



“We’re neutral overall in equities but long in defensive equities. For example, a power company is a good company to invest in because they can pass on costs to consumers, they’re defensive and throw out a lot of cash.”



Mr Stubbs said there was no way of knowing exactly when the bubble would burst and inflation would pick up speed.



Hyperinflation may not have arrived yet but annual inflation is likely to be well above the Reserve Bank’s target range of 1-3% in the next few quarters, according to prediction market website iPredict.



According to iPredict’s latest weekly snapshot annual inflation is expected to be 4.6% for the March quarter, up from 4.5% for the last three weeks.



Annual inflation is expected to be 5.3% in the June quarter and 5.0% in the September quarter.



Petrol prices are also tipped to rise, putting further pressure on a stalling economy.



The probability unleaded petrol prices will exceed $2.20 per litre in 2011 is 90%, the probability it will exceed $2.30 per litre is 60%, the probability it will exceed $2.40 per litre is 40%, and the probability it will go above $2.50 per litre is 33%.



The CPI (Consumer Price Index) rose 4.0% in the year to December 2010, according to Statistics New Zealand, with part of the increase being a result of GST being hiked from 12.5% to 15%"







 

Answer me this.

Why is it that this extremely minor bit of information is considered more newsworthy than ASB lowering their term deposit rates today?

ANZ and National haven't even matched the market - so hardly any news for those mortgage conspiracy theorists.

There will be far more people impacted by ASB's term deposit cuts than there will be by ANZ/National's home loan move. 

Where's the balance in reporting?