16 August 2019
What Are These Central Banks Up To?
It’s funny how in such a supposedly egalitarian country as Australia we pay so much deference to public servants. We pay them a lot (much more than their overseas counterparts), we give them a lot of power, and perhaps most important of all, we hardly ever question what they do. The attitude of politicians, the business community, and most of
21 February 2019
The NAB Board Will Pay A Heavy Price
The story of the resignation from NAB of its chief executive Andrew Thorburn and its chairman Ken Henry after the Hayne royal commission is instructive. It reveals just how hopeless the boards of directors are of most big businesses in Australia. What happened at NAB demonstrates that, these days, directors are more likely to make the easy and supposedly popular
8 February 2019
Banking Royal Commission: Duplicitous Banks, Foolish Borrowers
The funniest thing to come out of the Hayne royal commission is a story that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday. Titled “I’m amazed they approved me: CBA lashed for lending to the naive”, the article began as follows. “One victim of irresponsible lending, 24-year-old Georgia Clark, believes the banking royal commission’s recommendations are a missed opportunity to protect the
11 October 2018
Regulators, The Royal Commission And Crony Capitalism
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation, and Finances Services Industry has uncovered some inexcusable behaviour. Charging client’s fees without providing services, pressured selling of insurance to a man with down syndrome, and thousands of breaches for providing unsolicited advice and insurance are just a few examples highlighted in the Royal Commission’s interim report released last Sunday. Almost
1 June 2018
A Banking Royal Commission By Show Trial
The hearings of the banking royal commission have, at different times, resembled a cross between the Soviet show trials of the 1930s and the American TV show L.A. Law of the 1980s. All those Turnbull government ministers who opposed a royal commission into the banks – on the grounds that policy should be made after careful and sober consideration and not as a
30 November 2017
Royal Commission A Thoroughly Bad Idea
“A Royal Commission into the banking sector is a bad idea because it will not solve the key problems in that sector: too much red tape and a lack of competition,” said Daniel Wild, research fellow with the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. “The quality of Australia’s banking sector will not be improved by a Royal
27 October 2017
Bank Regulation: Liberals Try To Prove They Hate Banks Even More Than Labor
“Since when did a conservative government become more socialist than the ALP? What does a conservative government stand for if it wants to regulate the employment conditions of leaders in the private sector? I am desperately confused. Is all this for short-term political interests? This action certainly does not represent the values on which the Liberal Party was founded.” Jeff
7 July 2017
SA Bank Levy Has Already Caused Harm To The South Australian Economy
A new report released today by the Institute of Public Affairs, has found that the South Australian Bank Levy has already damaged the investment reputation of South Australia, despite not yet being put to Parliament. The Report The South Australia Major Bank Levy: Arbitrary, unjustified, and harmful for South Australia and the rest of the country, by Dr Chris Berg
7 July 2017
The South Australian Major Bank Levy: Arbitrary, Unjustified, and Harmful for South Australia And The Rest Of The Country
In the South Australian state budget 2017-18, South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis announced that the state government intended to introduce a South Australian Major Bank Levy, one of two revenue measures “to help us meet the cost of our significant support for driving economic growth and creating more jobs”.1 Treasurer Koutsantonis made clear that this levy was explicitly modelled on
3 July 2017
State Government Bank Levy Makes South Australia Riskiest Place For Investment In Australia
Imagine being an international investor looking at Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis’s Budget. You wouldn’t be interested in his infrastructure spend and “future jobs fund”. You’d immediately hone in on the fact that the South Australian government has doubled down on the Federal Coalition’s bank levy by introducing its own state bank levy. And you’d immediately understand that this makes SA the
