The cracks are starting to appear. At least here. While America's economy continues to defy the odds, with stronger-than-anticipated inflation, employment and spending, Australia's economy is labouring under the growing weight of the past two years of rate hikes. Even though the Fed has hiked rates more than the Reserve Bank, the effect on mortgage interest rates here has been dramatically higher. {chart} Australian mortgage rates have risen much higher than US mortgage rates, because most Americans are on long-term fixed loans (20-30 years).(Supplied: AMP) That's now raising the prospect that we may end up cutting ... (full story)