�鶹��ý - banks

United States: The new banking crisis

Barry Sheppard — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 12:45:00 +1100

The United States is hoping to stave off a general collapse of the currency system, writes Barry Sheppard. This threat gives the capitalist class extortion power to insist that the government bail out the big banks.

Banks are hated with good reason

Peter Boyle — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 16:45:00 +1100

Banks are hated for good reasons: they rip off and abuse ordinary customers while helping their richest clients spirit away ill-gotten gains. They help keep the poor poor while making the rich even richer, writes Peter Boyle.

New bank inquiry a 'smoke and mirrors' exercise

Jim McIlroy — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 16:15:00 +1100

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's announcement of yet another inquiry into the banking sector is just the latest attempt by the Coalition government to pretend it is doing something about the crimes of the Big Four banks.

Spanish law on trial as Catalan leaders face jail

Dick Nichols — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 12:15:00 +1100

In recent weeks, senior judges in the loftiest halls of the Spanish legal system — the Supreme Court, the National High Court and the Constitutional Court — have been exposed as subverters of a fair legal process, lackeys of Spain’s almighty banking elite and bumbling incompetents, writes Dick Nichols from Barcelona.

Will this year finally see the introduction of ‘rank socialism’?

Carlo Sands — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 16:30:00 +1100

The New Year is in full swing, and if there is one thing I am really looking forward to in 2018, it is the long overdue introduction of “rank socialism” in this nation.

This appears to be on the agenda to go by the dark warnings offered up last year by former prime minister, jogger and war-criminal-at-large John Howard on the matter of a royal commission into the banking sector.

Banks and the future of work

Bob Main — Sat, 02 Dec 2017 11:15:00 +1100

Finance industry workers are facing increasing pressure as banks seek to maximise their already hefty profits. Our jobs are becoming increasingly precarious, and all the while our wages and conditions are being threatened with cuts.

These days, if you walk into a bank, you’ll find very few staff and a lot of ATMs, which not only give cash but do almost everything a teller can do. You will also find a concierge, whose job is to shift customers to self-service via online banking. Tellers have performance targets for shifting customers online.

Budget attacks on ordinary people use scalpel instead of sledgehammer

Alex Bainbridge — Sat, 13 May 2017 10:00:00 +1000

Complaints by conservative commentators that Treasurer Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have delivered a “Labor budget” show how low expectations are that any federal government in Australia will deliver a budget aiming to advance genuine social justice in this country.

Is a new European financial crash just around the corner?

Dick Nichols — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 11:00:00 +1100

The tribulations of major European banks, starting with “venerable institutions” like the Monte dei Paschi di Siena (the world’s oldest bank) and Deutsche Bank (Germany’s largest), have raised the spectre of a repeat of the crash of 2008 — a “Lehman Brothers times five” in the words of one market analyst.

Deutsche Bank has been found to be seriously under-capitalised, both according to the standards set under the Basel III international bank regulation standards and according to its own targets. The same goes for British giant Barclays.

Maximise your vote for a people's movement against corporate greed and racism

Susan Price — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 10:00:00 +1000

Pork-barrel politics and scare tactics have dominated the final weeks of the “longest election campaign ever”. Voters in marginal seats have been warned to “vote carefully”, to not “waste your vote” or “risk a protest vote” which might result in — shock horror “the chaos of a hung parliament”. We have had “tradies” in political ads trying to convince workers that the Liberal National Party (LNP) is their party, and Labor trying to convince the public that they have “rediscovered” labor values.

SYRIZA win provokes new confrontations

Dick Nichols — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 11:00:00 +1100

What does the victory of radical left party SYRIZA in Greece's January 25 elections mean for politics in Europe, at Europe-wide and national levels? Both levels are closely intertwined, and since SYRIZA’s win have been having rapid feedback effects on each another. Across Europe, the reverberations of SYRIZA’s win are being felt with rising force, both in “peripheral” Europe, but also in the German-led European Union “core”.

Puerto Rico: Billionaire hedge fund managers demand schools close to pay debt

Tony Iltis — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 10:00:00 +1000

“Billionaire hedge fund managers have called on Puerto Rico to lay off teachers and close schools so that the island can pay them back the billions it owes,” the Guardian said on July 28 on the debt crisis facing the United States' Caribbean colony.

Will Abbott save Galilee Basin coalmine?

Peter Boyle — Fri, 22 May 2015 10:00:00 +1000

In its latest federal budget, the Tony Abbott Liberal-National government announced the setting up of a $5 billion “concessional loan facility” called the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. The proposal has been condemned by environmental and Aboriginal rights groups.

Melbourne celebrates the End of Coal

Andrea Bunting — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 10:00:00 +1000

Melbourne climate activists staged an “End of Coal” parade on August 13. They were celebrating the Commonwealth Bank’s decision to cancel its involvement with Adani’s Galilee coal proposals. They called on all Australia’s Banks to stop investing in fossil fuels.

Westpac the world’s most sustainable firm? That’s a bad joke

Simon Butler — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 11:00:00 +1100

If you want evidence that the corporate rich are turning “sustainable” into a dirty word, then consider the recent award won by Australian bank Westpac. At last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the bank was named the most sustainable company in the world.

How banks rig the system to make their profit

John Rainford — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 11:00:00 +1100

The ANZ announced a full-year cash profit of $6.5 billion on October 29. Two days later, the NAB posted a profit that was not quite so big. It had only managed $5.94 billion in the year to September. Banks make their profits in a number of ways. One is a sort of bankers’ version of two-up, betting on foreign exchange rates. This is the world’s largest market. Reserve Bank of Australia figures for April put the average Australian foreign exchange turnover at US$181.7 billion a day.

Why the big four banks should be nationalised

John Rainford — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 11:00:00 +1100

Earlier this year, US and European banks — the ones that were too big to fail — settled US$18 billion worth of fines with regulators. These fines were for money laundering activities, breaching sanctions violations, and manipulating the Libor (London interbank offered rate). The Libor is used to set interest rates on about US$800 trillion of borrowings and derivative contracts.

Imagine if banks were run as a not-for-profit service

Peter Boyle — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +1100

One of the sneering jokes passed around business circles after mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto announced they would not pay a cent this quarter under the Gillard government’s pathetic mining tax was that the government would have collected a fat cheque had it levied a super profits tax on the big banks instead.

Budget shortfall reveals system failure

Susan Price — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +1100

Reporting on the release of the mid-year budget update in the Canberra Times on October 22, Peter Martin wrote that “Tax collections from both wages and the GST are running ahead of projections. Dramatically lower company tax collections account for most of the $21 billion write-down.” Included in that $21 billion is a revenue downgrade of $4.3 billion dollars over four years in resource rent tax from petroleum and mineral extraction from a projected $13.4 billion.

The four corporate industries that rule Australia

Jay Fletcher — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +1100

The Forbes Billionaires list released last month included almost two dozen Australians in its ranks. Among them was mining boss Gina Rinehart, who has now become the richest person in Australia with a fortune of $17 billion. This placed her 36th in the world, but her net wealth was still double that of her nearest fellow Australian billionaire, chief executive of commodities firm Glencore, Ivan Glasenberg. Also on the list were finance elites, gaming kingpins and several other mining corporation owners.

Greedy banks out of control

Paul Benedek — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +1100

US gangster Al Capone once said: “Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.” 19th century US president Thomas Jefferson said: “Banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”

Donate to �鶹��ý Fighting Fund to help beat tyranny of the 'banksters'

Peter Boyle — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +1100

Nurses in Victoria are being threatened with an Alan Joyce-style lockout because they have campaigned for a modest 3.5% pay rise (just to keep up with the rising cost of living), superannuation and overtime improvements, and keeping patient-to-nurse ratios. Australia’s four big banks, meanwhile, have announced a combined annual profit of $24.4 billion, up 12% from $21.7 billion a year ago. This speaks volumes about the grossly distorted priorities in our society.

Joe Hockey is no Hugo Chavez

Peter Boyle — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +1100

Mike Smith, the CEO of the ANZ Bank has fumed about Liberal-National shadow treasurer Joe Hockey’s recent populist rhetoric against the four big banks that increasingly dominate the Australian economy. “The Liberals’ economic credentials have been hijacked by out-there proposals”, Smith said in the October 29 Sydney Morning Herald. “Mr Hockey seems to be on some kind of personal vendetta. It would appear he has been taking economics lessons from Hugo Chavez.” Has Hockey been taking lessons from Venezuela’s socialist president?

Big banks behind dirty coal

Simon Butler — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +1100

Australia’s big banks would like you to think they care about climate change and the environment. But don’t believe them. A new report by Greenpeace Australia has revealed the “big four” — Westpac, ANZ, Commonwealth and NAB — are investing billions of dollars in Australia’s dirty coal boom. Burning coal for energy is Australia’s single biggest contributor to climate change, making more than a third of the country’s greenhouse gas pollution. Australia is also the world’s biggest coal exporter — and the export trade is growing fast.

Britain: Bonuses rise, cuts and protests continue

Mat Ward — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 11:00:00 +1100

Britain: Goldman Sachs gives huge bonuses “Bankers were accused of ‘sticking two fingers up to austerity Britain’,” the British Guardian reported on January 19, “after it was revealed that [Wall Street bank] Goldman Sachs had handed its staff a £10bn payday as new figures showed unemployment among Britain's young people had hit its highest level since modern records began”. The article said data from the Office for National Statistics showed that one in five people under 25 were out of work by the end of November last year — a total of 951,000 people.

Call to ban cluster bomb investment

Kerry Smith — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +1100

During UN Disarmament Week (October 24-31), a bill to enact the UN Convention banning Cluster Munitions is to be tabled in the House of Representatives. However, it is unlikely to contain a provision prohibiting financial institutions from funding manufacturers of cluster bombs. It has been found that the ANZ bank has provided loans of $136.5 million to producers of cluster bombs.

Nationalise the banks to save the future

Peter Boyle — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:00:00 +1100

Westpac was the last of the big four banks in Australia to announce its annual profit. It made the biggest — a whopping $6.3 billion, 84% higher than 2008-09. The Commonwealth Bank made the second biggest profit this year, $6.1 billion (up 42%). It was also the first bank to announce it would raise its interest rates for home mortgages more than the latest Reserve Bank interest rate rise. ANZ made $5 billion (up 53%) and NAB $4.6 billion (up 63%). The big four made a total profit of $23 billion.

Britain: We should feel bankers’ pain

Mark Steel — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 11:00:00 +1100

At last someone has dared to defend the oppressed people of the British banking community. Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays bank, who himself has to suffer the trauma of an £8 million bonus, said yesterday that the bankers’ “period of remorse and apology should be over”. And you feel his pain, because the first words to cross your mind when you see a banker are “remorseful and apologetic”.