Roosting chorus: Whew. Just masks
Auckland stays out of Covid-19 lockdown, but masks may finally be mandatory on planes from Monday; ASB, ANZ and Westpac volunteer to start LVR restrictions now, rather than March;
TLDR: The Government decided against increasing Auckland’s Covid-19 alert levels after a concerning case of community transmission. Instead, finally, it will consider on Monday mandating mask use on planes and Auckland Transport.
Meanwhile, nurses are considering pulling out of MIQ facilities because of a lack of N-95 masks to stop aerosol transmission.
In the housing market and financial system, ANZ, Westpac and ASB have volunteered to limit 70% LVR lending to landlords from now, rather than the March 1 proposed earlier in the week by the Reserve Bank. Australia announced plans to remove its internal border restrictions by Christmas. The ball is in our court now.
News from our political economy today…




News from the global political economy today…





Charts of the day


Gold plated junk: Sharon Zollner at ANZ has spotted another extraordinary thing happening in the world’s bond markets. She’s (rightly) a sceptic
“Ostensibly, the current outlook is the least risky for US firms that it has ever been, even though their leverage relative to GDP is the highest ever (even before COVID smashed the denominator).” Sharon Zollner
Weekend Reads




Some fun things

Have a great weekend
Ngā Mihi
Bernard