Summary: Interview with economist Saul EslakeF on the Australian dollar Leon and Garry discuss issues including: Greece's creditors saying it must cut €14 billion ($A16.56 billion) from its budget in the next two years, €2.5 billion more than they originally demanded while Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras declares Greece intends to stay in the Eurozone The European Central Bank (ECB) considering buying the bonds of crisis-wracked eurozone countries to ensure borrowing costs do not rise beyond a pre-determined level Standard and Poor’s saying that the odds the United States will slip back into recession next year have risen Deutsche Bank warning against the growing risk of recession in Australia in 2013, as prices for commodities such as iron ore and coal spiral lower Australia's major miners face growing pressure as the price for iron ore looks set to fall due to Chinese steel mills lowering their output while BHP announces a profit fall and shelves the Olympic Dam project. Fitch Ratings figures showing that tourism hot spots have the highest concentration of borrowers falling behind on their mortgage repayments The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) saying the global economy remains fragile, with uncertainty emanating from the eurozone affecting financial markets and potentially hurting consumer and business spending Economists saying mortgage holders hoping for further interest rate cuts are likely to be disappointed if the minutes to the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) latest monthly board meeting are anything to go by. Interest-only housing loans, and loans for 100 per cent of the property's valuation, could be scrapped in future after the Reserve Bank's annual conference heard that they inflate property booms and busts A BIS Shrapnel report saying that not enough money is being spent on maintaining Australia's roads, railways and utilities Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry saying that state and federal governments need to extract more tax revenue if they are to fund ballooning infrastructure needs in decades to come The Coalition planning to save billions on its national broadband scheme by linking as few as 25 per cent of homes directly to the high speed fibre network and connecting most people through neighbourhood boxes, existing cable networks and satellites Global car giant Ford pressuring parts maker Nexteer to turn its back on $63 million in government funding and scrap plans for a new factory in Melbourne Lazard Asset Management, which emerged earlier this week with a five per cent-plus holding in Fairfax Media Ltd, reportedly preparing to support calls for a break-up of the company For the first time in history the value of Australian banks now rising to be worth more than the Eurozone A consortium of banks facing the prospect of paying up to $3 billion to the liquidators of the Bell Group after their appeal against a 2008 ruling failed in a WA court Australia Institute research questioning bank claims that higher funding costs are preventing them from passing on the full value of official interest rate cuts
