The ANZ bank will raise rates by 35 basis points, and the CBA by 37, as Westpac is left isolated with the highest big four home loan rate.

ANZ announced its move at the banks' traditional favourite time of late Friday afternoon, with its increase 10 basis points above the Reserve Bank's 0.25 percentage point cash rate rise on Tuesday.

The ANZ's standard variable mortgage rate will now be 6.66 per cent, effective this Monday - although the devil's number will be looking a bit less evil to borrowers than Westpac's new rate of 6.76 per cent.

The Commonwealth Bank earlier today announced it will raise rates on its variable home loans by 0.37 percentage points.

It is certainly against the laws of Britain and, most Christians would say, against the laws of God as well.

But according to one Church of England vicar, shoplifting is acceptable – as long as you steal from chain stores.

Father Tim Jones, parish priest of St Lawrence and St Hilda in York, broke off from the traditional Nativity story to say that sometimes shoplifting was the only option for poor families and certainly better than "prostitution, mugging or burglary" as a way of making money.

Mr Jones, who previously worked as a prison chaplain, told his congregation: "My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift. I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither. I would ask that they do not steal from small, family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices. I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need."

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When the banks raise the interest rate on the borrowings for your abode, at a stroke of decreed pen, they're only readjusting their financial pants for the benefit of the sharholders undies — but if we still a pair of braces to hold our trousers up, we're in trouble...  in more trouble than banksters who as they steal your money also degree themselves a bonus valued between 1 million and 100 million pairs of braces, depending on the quality...

Please, do not fall to the disgusting gutter level of the rich bloated crooks that most banksters are... Just sweat your envy out till the new year and walk with your head high in your clown shoes... see toon at top.

Making billions of dollars is "not that hard", David Tepper tells people. Away from the pride and bluster of Wall Street, in a modest office in suburban New Jersey, Mr Tepper is closing out one of the most profitable years any hedge fund has ever had. His fund is up $7bn (£4.4bn), and he'll be taking a reported $2.5bn of that home personally.

The strategy: keeping your head when all about you are losing theirs.

The 52-year-old has managed to become one of the most successful investors in the world without becoming a household name, without attracting public opprobrium and without even having to skip dinner with his family.

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see toon at top and read comment above...