Bastard Banks

So the Government, the Opposition, the media, various blowhards in the commentariat, and those poor old mortgagors have lambasted the banks for their most recent act of bastardry.

How dare they increase their rates by more than the Reserve Bank increase? Well people the reason they did is simply because they can.

Where else in the commercial world do we have contracts between a buyer and a seller where one side (the seller) can change the price of the contact at their whim - at anytime during the term of the contract? That is the issue folks - you want a mortgage in Australia then you will be captive to the form of mortgage contract that is used by Australian banks. So get over it or move elsewhere.

The truth is that the Australian housing market has been seriously skewed in favour of the lenders and the builders and developers and the state governments and everyone else who earns a living from exploiting the poor old *buyers*. And if they ever find out - then the place will go belly up faster than a Roger Bannister mile.

And adding more competition will not change that fact Virginia. The truth is that various Governments State and Federal, Liberal and Labor have encouraged allowed this nice little risk free earner for the banks to continue for eons. How else do you think they got to be so profitable?

Ahh - free enterprise is a wonderful thing isn't it? Especially when it is built around a sanctioned scam of young naive and innocent home buyers ;-)

And there is some thinking that suggests the banks are getting a bit tetchy about the number of mortgages that are starting to look a little shaky - and they are using some of these *extra* rate rises as a bit of insurance.

So it looks like their risk management processes are putting the price of mortgages up - does that suggest anything to anyone?

No I didn't think so.

The Thinking Bogan

I don't know about you lot but I would prefer for the nation to have a bit of a plan to accompany the "Moving Forward" mantra that was adopted by the "Bogan in Chief" at our last federal election.

Just so the people have a bit of a clue about where we are moving forward to? I hope it's not Melbourne Virginia ;-)

It is all very well for the professional politicians to manage the nation on our behalf and to regularly tell us that they have our interests at heart - but I for one don't believe them.

So might I make a request for Julia and the crew to think about and develop a *National Plan* that they can talk about and which may even be used to guide their actions and investments. It might even allow us to identify their *core values* if they have any?

Now I don't want them to get too excited about it - because we all know how a poorly thought through plan can go awfully wrong. But surely we should have some ambition and goals that will help us to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Because meandering along in the wake of the resources boom is probably not a very clever or sustainable approach.

Innovation

A great article on innovation by Terry Cutler in Crikey today - here. I had a few other words to say about innovation last year.

It's scary that the nation and the vast majority of our people and politicians and so-called leaders seem to just bumble along - all living on the wealth generated from the mining boom. Because that is what has been happening for quite a while now.

We had a lucky escape from the full impact of the GFC and most of us didn't even seem to notice. The thing about living in "The Lucky Country" is that eventually our luck will run out. I suspect that it already has - it's just that we haven't noticed yet.

Two things define for me how dumb this "lucky country - she'll be right" attitude is.

* The housing bubble which just about everyone (except Steve Keen) seems to think is a permanent paradigm shift and;

* The acquisition by many people of truck like 4wd's for their daily transport.

These two things symbolise our national stupidity identity. They should be on the national flag and displace skippy and his mate from our coinage ;-)

We have been madly pouring our resources into a housing bubble that has the potential to decimate the personal wealth of a large number of our citizens - when it goes *poof*. What then Virginia?

For nearly a decade we have been ignoring productive business investment and hoping to get rich quick by buying jerry built McMansions and on-selling them to other gullible bogans.

And the inconvenient truth is that most of us know we are severely impacting the planet but we have such a cavalier attitude that we don't seem to care about that - and continue to acquire monster fuel guzzling vehicles as if there was no tomorrow. Perhaps there isn't.

And Terry Cutler wants to see some more innovation - it won't happen here mate because we just aren't clever enough.

Politics

In the upheaval of the American election I found this gem from Sam Wylie - here. Nothing to do with the mid terms but a fantastic commentary of how politics produces the stuff that it does ;-)

"My wife and I gave money to the Gore campaign in 2000. We were living in Hanover, New Hampshire (the ‘live free or die’ state). Because New Hampshire has the first primary all the campaigns go through Hanover and we got to see all the main candidates. At the end of the primaries it was down to just four: On the Democrat side Bill Bradley and Al Gore and on the Republican side John McCain and George Bush. It was evident that three of those candidates were men of real statue and the other should have been running a gas station somewhere. No need to mention which one was not the like the others".

And as they say the rest is history. Hilarious.

A Few Days

It only takes a few days to work out what big Joe is up to.

He started his little bank bashing campaign a few days ago - because he knew that the banks were about to announce their profits and he also knew that the Treasurer was nearly ready to announce a package of measures to enhance competition in the banking industry.

Is there another Godwin Grech hiding away in the Treasury?

So just as I speculated recently, Joe has no interest in regulating banks - but he does have an interest in capturing media attention for his great pronouncements on the banking industry. And that is what he has done.

And he will hammer away at it relentlessly until Wayne announces something.

And it looks like our media folks are unable to see the forest for the rhubarb - jeez maybe we need a *paradigm shift* in the Australian media or something. Are they really all on Valium?

Skill Shortages

Thanks Virginia for your note yesterday about the skill problems that are affecting us - of course it's all the Government's fault.

I will acknowledge that we have been a little slack with our processes - perhaps we should have been thinking about workforce planning a little earlier than last week but I always thought that Tony would get in and that the Coalition would then do what they always do - and let employers dictate employment terms to the workforce. Big disappointment that.

Plus I was hoping that he would re-introduce WorkChoices (of course he would have called it something else) and that would have allowed us to screw our workers while screaming for a change to those bloody restrictive imported worker rules that the Labor Government have introduced.

And I note that they are now clamping down on the numbers coming here to attend University - jeez where are the fast food and convenience store industries going to find slave cheap labour now?

And don't talk to me about training. The last time we spent money on training people was at the junket conference in Bali in 1988 - and the Tax Office only allowed us to claim 20% of that! Never again Virginia.

And that is the real problem - how can we run an Aussie Icon business when we have to pay Australian's real wages? Lets get real here - there is just no possibility of us making any more super profits if we have to pay anything like $18 an hour? Surely the Government understands that?

So your first task will be to ensure the Government gets back to a real employment system of letting us import all those Asian and Islander workers. They are the workers we want because we can pay them peanuts and claw back much of that with bogus services - like housing and transport. And who cares if they don't speak English - at least then they won't be able to complain. Couldn't we just use Google Translator?

And keep talking up those "Skill Shortages" because if we can get the media to focus on that then perhaps they will overlook the fact that we haven't been doing any workforce planning or educating our workers or paying them very much.

And then I can get back to the real issues that concern us all like trying to work out which new 4wd to buy and how to acquire the 10th new investment property using negative gearing - to house our new "workers".

Knickers in a Knot

So the main stream media have their knickers in a knot over big Joe and his proposal to neuter the banks.

They seem to like it (his proposal) but are concerned that it comes from Joe. Because Joe and his friends are members of the political party that has encouraged let the banks and their big business mates ride roughshod over the nation - for decades.

Find me a sizeable business that is actually looking out for their customers - as opposed to their shareholders and executives? There simply isn’t one Virginia - that's the sad truth.

And if you are so out of touch that you don't know that then you should turn the page now.

Because friends, the Coalition exists to run cover for big business and the rent seekers and vested interests in the corporate world - that is their job. They don't give a rats about small business or our citizens - because we don't *donate* enough folding stuff. And all they have to do is bribe us every three years to get what they want anyway.

* Mining taxes - no way lets be rid of them.

* Concentration of Media ownership - no problem we'll let Rupert and Co. do as they like.

* Climate Change - nothing to worry about there - let the big emitters continue to crap on the nation.

* Boat people - yes they are the bad guys - but we'll let you buy residency with a Mickey Mouse little degree.

* War Mongering - sure thing - where else can we start one?

So why do you think that Joe is trying to *neuter* the banks?

Well he isn’t - this is just another Coalition scam - like the ones that they introduced prior to the last election. Remember them - and Joe's attempt to buy some credibility by telling us their "costings" had been audited? And remember how it was all BS? Same old thing folks.

That's the thing about the Coalition - they lie through their teeth and then they think that we will have forgotten it all 5 minutes later - sorry but I haven't.