What stinks is year on year our "big four" still strip over $30 Billion Dollars out of our economy for themselves. There should in my opinion be a limit on profit percentage made by institutions that are there to service the public needs.
I remember when we would all get a pay packet every week or fortnight what ever was the pay cycle...a little wad of cash to do as we pleased. Welfare or Child Endowment payments were paid by cheque...an RBA cheque that could be cashed at the local Bank or even some times the local Green Grocer would cash the cheque for groceries. When working in a Bank as a Teller in the early 70's, every week we would get runs of cheques being cashed....life was simple.
Then Bankcard came along, Personal Loans became much of a relic, it became the norm to have wages, Social Security etc paid in to Bank Accounts. I recall thinking at the time...the thin end of the wedge...the Governments will have the capacity to know how much money you have and how you spend it. Plus of course all Cheque Accounts had "Keeping Fees" charged...a win for the Banks as they now had a fantastic regular cash flow where they could do as they pleased...and they still do!
Interest rates are no more than a way to control the population's spending habits...a set of levers that can be pulled either way at the whim of the Government of the day. That that the RBA is independent of the Government in setting rates imo is a furphy...
