Neville Spencer

Banks too important to leave in hands of greedy capitalists

After Commissioner Kenneth Hayne released the banking royal commission鈥檚 interim report in September, many of the headlines and takeaway quotes focused on its claim that banks 鈥減ut profits before people鈥.

聽鈥淲hy did it happen?鈥 the asked. 鈥淭oo often the answer seems to be greed 鈥 the pursuit of short term profit at the expense of basic standards of honesty. How else is charging continuing advice fees to the dead to be explained?...

Samir Amin on value in a divided world

Modern Imperialism, Monopoly Finance Capital and Marx鈥檚 Law of Value
By Samir Amin
Monthly Review Press, 2018

One of the most obvious and abhorrent features of the global economy is the stark division of the world into a wealthy 鈥淣orth鈥 and a poor 鈥淪outh鈥. Egyptian-born economist Samir Amin, who passed away in August, often referred to this divide as one of 鈥渃entre鈥 and 鈥減eriphery鈥.

Morrison鈥檚 Plan B 'trickle down' tax cuts

After its embarrassing failure to win either popular or Senate crossbench support for its proposed big business tax cuts, the Coalition government has instead opted to bring forward tax cuts for small and medium businesses by five years.

Living on the brink of a new financial meltdown

In 2009, economist Steve Keen walked from Canberra to Mount Kosciuszko after losing a bet that the Australian housing market would crash 40% after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). However, he had been one of the few economists who actually predicted the coming of the GFC. And he still maintains that a crash in the Australian housing market is coming.

Two books that bust the bank bubble

The Production of Money: How to Break the Power of the Bankers
Ann Pettifor
Verso
London, 2017
192 pages
Fictitious Capital: How Finance is Appropriating Our Future
Cederic Durand
Translated by David Broder
Verso
London, 2017
176 pages

The Galah鈥檚 hidden underbelly

The Lucky Galah
By Tracy Sorensen
Picador
Sydney, 2018
279 pages, $29.99

The Lucky Galah is the first novel from Tracy Sorensen, tutor in media at Charles Sturt University, documentary maker and former 麻豆传媒 Weekly journalist.

The novel is largely told from the perspective of a galah named Lucky. From her cage or perched on her owner鈥檚 shoulder, Lucky observes and narrates life with a degree of omniscience, yet lives life caged or restricted by clipped wings.

Inflation comes to GLW

When I am out selling 麻豆传媒 Weekly on the streets, I am often asked: 鈥淲here does the money go?鈥 I have to tell people that it just goes to producing the next issue of the paper. The cover price is not nearly enough to make such a profit that we would have to decide what to do with it. In fact, GLW would never have survived 25 years without huge ongoing efforts in appealing for donations and organising fundraisers to raise the additional money needed over what we get through sales and subscriptions.

Government secrecy, lies on refugees exposed

An immigration department review into the forcible removal of Save the Children Fund workers from the Nauru immigration detention centre, released on January 15, recommended that they be paid compensation. The nine charity workers were ordered to leave Nauru by the Australian government in October 2014 after they claimed that women and children at the detention centre were being sexually abused.

COP21: The dirty game of collusion

One side event at the COP21 United Nations climate change conference in Paris was the launch of the Fossil-Fuel Subsidy Reform Communique. Almost 40 countries signed onto the statement, which pledges to eliminate subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. The communique said: 鈥淭he International Energy Agency (IEA) highlights fossil fuel subsidy reform as a key component of a set of energy measures to combat climate change and estimates that even a partial phase-out of fossil-fuel subsidies would generate 12% of the total abatement needed by 2020 to keep the door open to the 2掳C target.鈥

Australia鈥檚 climate inaction embarrassment

Politicians, both Labor and Liberal, have spent years defending this county鈥檚 pitiful efforts on tackling climate change with the excuse that Australia 鈥渃an鈥檛 go it alone鈥 鈥 it has to wait for other countries to commit to action on climate change. The same excuse was often echoed in the media. In particular, the lack of action by the US and China were cited as the reasons why Australia should commit to doing little or nothing.

How Murdoch cares for the underprivileged

At a G20 meeting last October, Rupert Murdoch surprised some with a speech that criticised world leaders for, as it was described in his Australian newspaper, 鈥渢heir policies [that] have caused a 鈥榤assive shift鈥 in societies to benefit the super-rich with a legacy of social polarisation鈥. In particular, Murdoch criticised youth unemployment: 鈥淭he unemployment rate for Americans under the age of 25 is 13%, which sounds awful until I remember that in the eurozone that number is 23%, and it is twice as high in places like Spain and Greece, and parts of France and Italy.

Fighting fund: Intergenerational theft is real

The latest buzzword the government is tossing around to try to scare people into supporting its grossly unfair budget is 鈥渋ntergenerational theft鈥. It recently released an Intergenerational Report, which looks at the budget over the next 40 years to back up this campaign. The report says that in the future we will all live much longer and spend more of our lives in retirement. There will be a lower proportion of working people whose taxes pay for pensions and health care, so 鈥渨e鈥 have to start paying for it now.