Helping Canterbury recover; corporate citizenship; community activism; donated trading stock; and proprietary-trading page-turners

This one is dedicated to the good people of Christchurch.

I welcome your feedback and suggestions; you can email me at amanda.morrall@interest.co.nz

1) Savings and spending

As politicians spar over the financing of Christchurch reconstruction efforts, individuals and businesses in the region are grabbing the proverbial bull to find constructive and innovative ways to keep businesses afloat and propel them forward.

Philantrophy and volunteerism could play a formative role. Recovery Canterbury, a business network support group, has had several parties step up to the plate donating services to prevent businesses from falling between the gap.

Humanitarianism and goodwill won't fix the problems, but they'll go a long way to restoring the Garden City. For a list of those businesses offering support, check out their website here. And for a list of businesses that remain open, and eager for trade, click here.

2) Credit & Debt

On that note, ASB in a gesture of corporate goodwill announced a NZ$250 million earthquake package to help affected businesses and individuals. As reported earlier by Gareth Vaughan, the package includes a NZ$100 million rebuild fund which allows businesses to switch existing borrowing with the bank into a one-year interest-free loan followed by two years with a one percent discount on current interest rate.

Home loan customers are also being offered a six-month repayment holiday and a one-year interest discount of 1% on the variable rate or 0.5% on the fixed rate.

ASB has also pledged support to the city's hardest hit residents by offering reduced credit card rates set at the Fringe Benefit Tax rate of 6.24% for 12 months. Further, the bank's personal loan rates, advertised at 14.95% per annum for secured loans and 17.95% per annum for unsecured loans, are being reduced to ASB's floating home loan rate which is currently 5.75% for 12 months together with a potential six month payment holiday.

For deals offered by other banks see our previous story here.

3) Home & Real Estate

Out of the rubble, citizens action group Canterbury Communities Earthquake Recovery Network (CANCERN) has been born. The grassroots organisation has launched a website that features a vast range of resources and information, including insurance contacts and tips, traffic alerts, geotech reports, notifications of meetings, news and developments on recovery efforts.  It wouldn't be grassroots without a blog which last week questioned whether Wellington bureaucrats were trying to micromanage the situation from afar.

And closer to home, the site contains a suburb by suburb profile where residents are invited to post pictures, progress reports and other relevant information for neighbourhood's under reconstruction.

Labour’s Christchurch MPs say the last thing residents need is more Wellington bureaucracy stifling the rebuild.

Cosgrove agrees local authorities can’t do it on their own and that their needs to be support from central government, with some specific management put around the Christchurch City Council.

But he said people in Christchurch are entitled to say what sort of city and province they want, and the community has not been listened to in the last six months following the September quake.

“People want cool headed, detailed, efficient planning where the community gets a large say, where it’s community focused and community centric, because people in Christchurch, putting aside politicians, are actually entitled to say what city and the sort of province they want going forward.”

He said once the planning is done people want swift implementation.

“What they don’t want is hundreds of Wellington-based bureaucrats running around the countryside in Canterbury telling Cantabrians what to do and tripping over their own red tape.

Cosgrove said no-one knows what the government is planning to do but he fears bureaucracy.

This video of what's left of the CBD (where I spent four years working) brought tears to my eyes. The devastation is surreal.

4) Death & Taxes

Under tax relief measures introduced this week, companies wanting to donate trading stock, can do so with the same tax advantage as gifting cash. The amendment, slated to become law in May, will be retroactive and apply to both earthquakes. See details below.

While businesses continue to fight for deeper tax changes to offset or cushion losses, Inland Revenue will also defer filings for all individuals and businesses affected. For details on time extension click here.

The new exclusion will cover businesses that donate (or supply for less than market value) their trading stock for the purpose of alleviating the effects of the earthquake.

• The applicable meaning of trading stock will be that contained in section EB 2 of the Income Tax Act 2007.
• The new exclusion will apply in respect of both the 4 September 2010 Canterbury earthquake and the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
• For the exclusion to apply the trading stock must be disposed of:
  - for less than market value;
  - to non-associated persons; and
  - within four months of the applicable earthquake.

5) Books and Film

High finance makes for good drama these days with no shortage of morally bankrupt billionaires being vilified for their riches. Union Atlantic, penned as the euphemistically named credit crunch was in the making, trades on the frenzy.

This fictional tale of financial hi-jinx turns on the cashed-up world of Doug Fanning, a Gulf War veteran turned no- positions- barred investment banker.

Hardened by a lonely and underprivileged childhood and dehumanised by war, Fanning emerges from the desert war a perfectly chiselled citizen of discontent. His soulessness finds good home at an overleveraged banking behemoth cut from the same cloth of Bear Stearns, where he heads up their proprietary trading division.

Haslett is in good literary company having once shared a prestigious writing award with the talented Jonathan Franzen of "Corrections" fame and now "Freedom" both of which I can heartily recommend.

Here's a transcript of Haslett's interview with Renee Montage with National Public Radio talking about his uncanny sixth sense of impending financial disaster.

And finally some light humour: Remind you of anyone?

When the alternative is hairspray, I guess crewcuts aren't so bad. Anyone know where to source some Butch Hair Wax for Bernard?