Seeing as John has blocked me from his site again (which isn't surprising - Socialist societies of all flavours don't like dissenters or those that pose hard questions. So much for "democratic free speech"), here is my followup comment to my last comment... again:

No compensation John? Does that mean you're advocating theft? Even moving to a society based on "democratic production" does not exinguish prior property rights. So does that mean that your enlightened society is built around theft?

Could you please explain why people would want to move to this ideal of yours? Why would people want to work in a society where their labour does not contribute to their own personal wealth? Are you denying that people are interested in building their own wealth?

Perhaps it's time for a realisation John: There is no flavour in society for socialism. There is no flavour for "democratic production". This is amply demonstrated by the tiny Socialist Alternative membership.

A fair article John; though I myself am staunchly for nationalizing infrastructure, I am somewhat against nationalizing other business in general, and find banks to be somewhere in the middle.

I think the best course of action is for now, to only nationalize banks that had previously been public anyway- thus it returns exactly to its previous owners (who paid for its establishment no less).
The rest can be more strictly regulated regarding lending and charging.

If it turns out successful, we can re-evaluate the others at a later point.

*Nationalising the banks under workers' control would be a good first step in doing that.*

Passy has been calling for revolution for ages, we know all that.

But then who would lose, if our banks were nationalised? Given
that Australian workers super funds own most of their shares,
he clearly proposes to steal the assets from workers back pockets!

Banks make up around 25% of the ASX. Does Passy think that workers
won't notice, if 25% of their superannuation vanishes?

It is competition that keeps prices down - not governments who typically when they interfere in markets either cause oversupply, rationing or a black market to form.

In the early 1900s the same problem occured in the US with Oil Industry - too much concentration of market power. Australia should adopt the same solution as the US did which is to both pass Anti-trust legislation and then implement it. In 1984 for example the USA government broke AT&T.

Just get each bank to split in two (companies split all time - Westfield is doing it now) and implement a big 8 pillars policy and that would change everything.

Gosh, I do hope you feel better after getting that off your chest John.

You are in the luxurious position of being able to spit out these splenetic pieces from the cosy comfort of your idealogical armchair while members of the banking system quietly go about their task of sourcing funds to on-lend to those who seek to borrow them. And guess what, they do so in pursuit of profit - shame on them.

By the way, the cost of sourcing those funds is the driver of interest rates - it's called a profit margin John, and competitive pressures do tend to drive them, though not in the simplistic sense you, Wayne Swan and Joe Hockey like to describe them.

If you'd care to look back in time there was a Labor Government that attempted to nationalise the banks back in the late 1940s - here's a link to the High Court case (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1948/7.html), it's a bit of a read but worth it if you'd like to understand the constitutional basis for saying NO to such ardent nonsense as you suggest.

The Labor Government got kicked out next election by the way, at least partly due to the back lash from engaging in such a pointless exercise.

You don't seem to trust anyone who is involved in the mechanism of commerce do you John? You appear to consider the RBA a bunch of stooges - is that because Bernie Fraser isn't a member any more?

By the way, if you are a member of a super fund (virtually ANY public offer fund, even one of Bernie's Industry Funds) you are a shareholder in one or more of these evil entities. If you are going to stand by your convictions John I suggest you divest yourself of all interests in these blood suckers post haste - or risk having your blog re-named: Je suis Pissant.

So after the Vic and SA governments (ALP) lost their shirts some years ago fiddling with banking, have we learned nothing?

This government will be famous for waste, let's not add banking to that, please.