How Does A Bank Get Numbers So Wrong?
Australia has 4 big banks, which have eaten up all their competition over the years. These banks have profited enormously from the decades of a residential property investment boom. These banks make something like $250K profit on an average home loan downunder. Housing in Australia is overpriced due to investors and the banks making so much money from the boom. Recently, we have been informed that Westpac has underpaid its staff to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. How does a bank get numbers so wrong? I mean, aren’t banks supposed to be the gold standard with numbers and checking on credibility?
Australian Banks Behaving Badly With Numbers
Meanwhile, CBA is being sued by ASIC for overcharging its customers for millions. Again, how does a bank get numbers so wrong? I mean, we only have 4 big banks downunder and you would think they would get this stuff right. If you cannot trust your bank, who can you trust? Nobody it seems. These banks make billions in profit each year. In Australia, our government regulators, the ACCC and ASIC have allowed mergers and takeovers to concentrate corporate ownership in every sector within our economy. This means that competition is seriously reduced and without effective competition capitalism does not work for consumers or employees.
We are all being ripped off by a manipulated economic system.
The Big Banks Ripping Off Customers & Their Workers
Our governments do little to nothing about this unfair framework. Power has been bought via campaign donations and undue influence. Democracy does not work when this sort of behaviour occurs. Affordability has become a prominent issue for more and more Australians. Radical change is required. These market duopolies and oligopolies must be broken up, if we are to reinvigorate the free market for all and not just for shareholders and executives. The imbalance in favour of investors is totally unfair for consumers and workers. Productivity has been moribund in Australia for many years. Only real competition calls for innovation, which increases productivity.
Rentier economies do not increase productivity. We must bust the manipulators, the billionaires and their facilitators in government.
More Competition Needed In Australia
It is time for real change re-corporate Australia and not just tinkering around the edges. The cozy deals must be smashed and our economy allowed to breathe and compete again. We need courageous leaders prepared to breakup the wealth and power arrangements. Big companies beget more big companies, as smaller concerns cannot compete. We need more competition and not less within the Australian economy. 28 million people live in Australia. They deserve a vibrant and growing economy and not a fixed game.
“We have had, for the last 45 years, governments complicit with big business in defining our economies. This is called neoliberalism. Where you personally find yourself financially right now is a direct consequence of this. How are your finances going? How have these largely unrestrained market forces been treating you? We were told that this would be the panacea to all our economic problems and that governments had been getting in the way of markets. “
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Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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