The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Why Australian banks are standing strong > Comments

Why Australian banks are standing strong : Comments

By Saul Eslake, published 8/10/2008

Australian banks have generally avoided writing mortgages at extremely high loan-to-valuation ratios.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. All
Saul.
The banks have proven their worth lately.
Through their services and their in-house processes of human resource management, promotion and the like; basically worldwide, a set have been emplaced who have stuffed up bigtime.
It is on the face of the record. Greed has replaced sustainable enterprise.
The newbies haven't a clue about what makes the world tick simply because their instructors exploited an essentially non-complaining resource.
Simplistically, the greedy baby-boomers.

Now is a good time to make for change.

Let it happen, put greed aside, and permit the rest of the upcoming world to at least influence your decisionmaking.

Admit the carbon trading bubble has burst even before it began.
Pipe down, admit it, get down from that pile of ashes -

'Cos economic warfare is not a joke and these last few weeks we have suffered as the target.
With what has happened in the US, the price of fuel and food - staples prices should have dropped remarkably.
That is not happening. Why Not?
Posted by A NON FARMER, Thursday, 9 October 2008 8:31:07 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Three cheers for non farmer! At last someone added the point about the hitherto intended carbon/fart bubble, and its apparent still birth, as a perpetuation of Greenspan's idiocy-posing-as-genius.

I gather non's questions were a rhetorical device ("staples prices should have dropped remarkably. That is not happening. Why Not?").

Well, if anyone had not figured the obvious, here's why not: masses of new paper coming onto the market from bailouts, then piling higher by coordinated interest rate cuts.

Welcome to Weimar. We need a political solution desperately, but the only semblance of "solution" prepared is fascism (think anti-terror legislation).
Posted by mil-observer, Friday, 10 October 2008 7:35:47 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Dear Mil-Observer,
Re - your's above.

I gather non's questions were a rhetorical device ("staples prices should have dropped remarkably. That is not happening. Why Not?").

My reply -
My question was - Absolutely Non - rhetorical at all. Bless you for asking.
Now, how about some feedback from others too - or your own expanded ideas.

A pal of mine who lives in an allied Nation State but somewhere in the ME wrote me the other day expressing the view that Australia should be playing her cards well and extracting huge benefits from the last few weeks of Wall Street Crash.
Fuel and commodities should be at base price, available as a boon to those in industry - but especially for the wage earner and those less fortunate in the scale of things.

Now here is the real issue - "Welcome to the Weimar" - as you said.
I like the way that paints the background of the emerging landscape.
What will fill in the details of the final work is brushes made of worthless cheques - Be aware that we're all trying to paint a picture here.

Come on someone - extend that scenario instead of whimpering about immediacy and greed!
Posted by A NON FARMER, Sunday, 12 October 2008 7:58:34 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Saul,

With maturity transform in times of lowing interest rates Banks will hold billions in term deposits after the rates fall. This scenario also puts a strain on the banks. High old rates are paid: low rates are received.

Also, I suggest that the Wealth Management Industry has much to answer for... Sucking peole in without disclosing the involved risk.

Relatedly, I recall about three-four years ago in a forum debating with the HSBC Chief Accountant in Hong Kong; wherein, I raised concerned about the US sub-prime housing and the negative affect maturity transformation when there is downward pressure on rates. Even when I pressed him, he just wouldn't admit to the significance these factors.

With a 150 high income people in the audience, invited to seminar, he tried to deflect me.

After a few exchanges, he said, even if US Bank profitability fell, "that the US economy would not be affected by Bank profitability". Was he a con-artist or a fool? I am sure that the HSBC is not alone. How can we trust the Banks?
Posted by Oliver, Sunday, 12 October 2008 8:55:23 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Saul,

Post Script: Banks didn't always rely as heavily on wholesale funding, instead on retail deposits. When liquidity was tight CCDs were endorsed.

O.
Posted by Oliver, Sunday, 12 October 2008 9:05:19 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Hi A NON FARMER,

I like your independent style - kinda makes me want to just say "non"!

Yes, I probably seemed too offhand there. In part I was referring to the huge derivatives zeppelin about to come crashing and burning on the house of usury. But note that my call of "hyperinflation" is probably more about stupidity and dishonesty than "greed", while the "immediacy" of that obvious danger seems to be taboo in our media. So I was not "whimpering" at all - just trying to reorientate ourselves with a clearer view of the facts and dynamics of this mega-crash.

Unfortunately many of us seem to be following certain monetarist "bouncing balls" that have little, no, or only very temporary relevance to events now. I suspect that your friend in the ME is similarly disposed, because his perspective apparently hinges on the same narrow scope of self interest that has helped fuel the various bubbles.

Perhaps some late gamble on resources could help someone to survive or even dominate later on. From the scale of the calamity I do not think it will, but that would become a political question about how any reorganized system treats previous notions of commodity value. Again, I would pause long before assuming that any paper (or even precious metal) will necessarily carry on - the selective and quixotic bail outs suggest that too. Then for Australia there are strategic matters of alliances and related contracts (real and imagined).

While state "leaders" and their financier bosses (western in particular) keep dithering and trying to pump up their badly punctured tyre, they commit themselves inadvertently to the more desperate, brutal and compatibly stupid "solution": fascism. That is where they seem headed, especially with the raft of anti-terror legislation, as portended by Brown's nasty, fraudulent trick on Iceland, which came after my previous post's mention of "think anti-terror legislation".
Posted by mil-observer, Sunday, 12 October 2008 10:07:40 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy