*It was a peoples bank..and people friendly..I remember it.*

All that religion must mean a flawed memory BD :)

Fact is that in those days banks worked on a spread of
4%, (difference between what they charge and what they
pay), today its half that.

In those days, you had to dress up to get a loan, most were
knocked back. Today any young fella with a bit of go in him
can borrow money, start his own business, unlike those
days.

Today anyone can go and buy some bank shares and share in
the joys and risks of the banking industry.

A little less praying and a bit more working might work
wonders for you :)

But, I know, complaining makes you feel better :)

Don't forget that Wayne Swan has his own rep on the RBA and he'll be pushing for higher rates.The reason why?Well you see we have the highest food inflation in the Western world and the oil companies have put up prices way above the inflation rate.The RBA in retaliation increases rates but this will not halt the price increases of the various oligopolies such as Caltex,Shell,Wollies Coles etc that now have a strangle hold on our economy.The result will be more poverty and hardship.Cheap energy/food underpins our living standards
The Howard Govt should have tackled these problems but they were in the pockets of big business just like Labor is.
Well the chickens have come home to roost as Dick Smith predicted.We have enormous wealth but we don't own it.We are being punished for the greed of big business via interest rates.

*Cheap energy/food underpins our living standards*

Thats your real problem Arjay, you have become used to far too
cheap energy and food, for far too long. Times are changing,
get used to it. City Australians might have to learn to actually
work for a living and compete in the global market.

You can't just blame Coles/ Woolies either. We know from
their financials, that their profit margins are in the order
of 2-4%, for their efforts. Huge costs are the problem, inflicted
by an enormous beurocracy who shuffle papers for a living.

Fact is that 1.5 trillion $ a year of wealth is now being shifted
from oil consumers to oil producers. Times are great in the
Middle East, but its our own fault for becoming addicted to their
oil.

As for food, I remind you that even at today's wheat price,
21c is the value of wheat in your loaf of bread, 40c a litre
approximately the value of a litre of milk at the farm gate.
The problem is between the farmgate and the consumer, as everyone
grabs their share. Meat is the same. Worth 1-3$ a kg at the
farmgate, it costs a fortune for the consumer. Many middle
men along the way, have their finger in the pie.

Australia remains a backward place in terms of manufacturing
efficiency, no wonder we can't compete in the global marketplace.

Payroll tax, stamp duty on insurance, the many other taxes
applied along the way, to feed the mouths of the chardonay
set, who shuffle papers, is where the money is going.

In the end somebody has to pay all these costs and its going
to be the consumer, as what farmers are paid for the actual
food, seems to have little baring on what consumers are paying.

Absolute BS Yabby.You swallowed the necessity of poverty concept hook line and sinker.We have a $ trillion economy.Divide this by the number of workers and the averge income should be $100,000.00.This means that each household should be bringing in $200,000.00 pa.Most are lucky to bring in less than half that.Where has all the wealth gone?The answer is big business and Govt waste.We as a nation have a personal debt equal to that of our annual GDP!

We sell natural gas to china for a few cents a litre,yet we pay 70c a litre at the bowser!Just a few yrs ago gas was 30c a litre.We have plenty of energy and resources.Just because the rest of the world over populates their turf,does not mean that we have to suffer because of their excesses!

Yes Plekican...you do understand me correctly.. not TOO socialist..nor TOO capitalist.. a nice mix instead.

Yabby... watch it mate or I'll feeeed ya to Pelican...*CHOMP* :)

I live for whinging..... but I'm also a 'doer'....

FOXY... you did a great job of restating the empty rhetoric which used lots of 'looking at'....'reviewing'.... 'trying' type adjectives.. code for a 'meaningless furrowed brow and glazed eyes'.....

My main whinge is that Swan is singing about things he is trying to just score political points over.. "we are DOING something" when in reality his 'doing' is just 'reviewing/looking/aspiring/hoping'...

Not a lot of dollars and cents in that for us.

I'm not sure what you think is BS Arjay. THE NPAT figures for
Coles and Woolies are commonly quoted in the financial press,
no secret there.

As to gas, yes some cheap deals were done with the Chinese for
30 years. Gas involves huge investments for both the seller and
buyer. Those projects don't go ahead and receive finance, without
firm customer commitment. The Chinese signed on the dotted line,
they got the deal. No Australian company signed to make that
kind of purchase commitment, so they never got the deal.

Of the NW shelf partners, which IIRC is 6 partners, only Woodside
is partly Australian, the rest are overseas oil companies, so
huge profits go overseas.

Yup, as world gas prices go up, Australian pump prices go up,
our prices are tied to the world market price or nobody would
bother making the investments in the first place.