This may have been posted upon, as this interview occurred just over a week ago. Its between bob brown and lyndal curtis.
LYNDAL CURTIS: Would you like to see any further re-regulation of the banks including what, something a Liberal Senator not Joe Hockey but a Liberal senator suggested, the possibility of re-regulating interest rates to some extent?
BOB BROWN: I have put forward legislation which would enable borrowers at the time that they sign a deal with the banks to know that they are not going to suddenly find the interest rate soaring beyond what they expected.
I think it's reasonable to have a look at making sure consumers are protected from unwarranted rises in interest rates by banks.
Bob Brown's ignorance infuriates me. How on earth can we have any control over the macroeconomic environment if interest rate movements are capped. Banks have to be able to respond to changes in funding costs, otherwise they bear the cost. Thus reducing their ability to expand by reinvestment which in turn reduces their ability to cater for increasing demand for credit as the economy expands.
Furthermore, the RBA isn't blind to the situation of banks increasing rates beyond official increases. Hence if rates were to "soar" for whatever reason, and that in turn was reducing inflationary pressure, the RBA would either keep rates on hold or ease them.
Time and time again the greens make it perfectly clear they completely lack any fundamental understanding of any form of economics. Only the ill informed and blindly ignorant can possibly support them. The greens continued gain in strength paints an alarming picture of the Australian public.
We definitely need some compulsory economics in the high school curriculum. They teach global warming in science now so why not economics. It's fundamental that people have some basic understanding of where they fit into the big picture that is the Australian economy. The more informed the general public is the more efficient society will become.
