The " gang of four ! "

In recent days the Reserve bank of Australia marginally lowered interest rates. The four major Australian banks cried poor - and refused to pass these savings fully to mortgage holders - and now they are talking of raising interest rates to improve their bottom lines !

This type of behavior was not always so. There used to be competition between the banks - and the pace setter was the Commonwealth bank. The private banks kept an eye on the government owned bank any time they considered change because the CBA would not go along with disreputable behaviour.

All that changed when the Paul Keating government decided that the state had no business being in banking - and sold the Commonwealth to the public.

Immediately the Commonwealth joined the private banks to form " the gang of four " and formed a cartel to ruthlessly exploit their monopoly. A host of new charges emerged and any idea of competition flew out the window.

Kevin Rudd admits that Australia is in recession and hints that the coming budget will contain stimulatory measures.

The greatest benefit the government could grant would be to make the formation of a new, government owned bank a part of that budget plan !

Times have changed and there would be no need for a vast branch structure. The private banks have reduced exposure because business is now done through ATM's and EFTPOS - but the presence of a bank trading on honest principles would reign in the marauders and reintroduce a missing component of trade - fair competition.

One of the reasons we are in recession is because the capitalist trading world lacked regulation and moved to excess. As part of that excess, we have our banks forming a cartel and gouging profit from both business and individuals.

The ball is in Kevin Rudd's court. Reverse the Keating disaster and add a fifth, free thinking bank to the Australian economic scene to break the cartel's hold on the money market.

That is exactly the stimulation the coming budget needs !