The ugly elephant in the room that the government and media ignore.

During this virus event many, many people are going to have to use credit cards to get through the coming months to buy food and medications, gas, electricity and so on. With politicians and media constantly talking about "everyone sharing the pain" and the government having to hand out financial assistance to prevent personal and business economic hardship where is the conversation about the banks and credit card companies charging 20% and more interest on their cards? Surely the banks should be brought to task by the media for profiteering so heavily during this crisis?

I understand that credit cards are un-secured debt and so they need to have higher interest to cover risk but that banks should give some leeway to their customers during this event with regards the accruing interest on their higher interest credit cards. A temporary lowering of interest rates on high interest cards for 6 months can help prevent people getting into a debt trap from buying survival necessities.

I really thing that this is something that should be right up there in the discourse here in Australia.

 

^a little insight into who really pulls the strings.

another thing that could be happening is the govt not sending out bills. got a car rego in the mail yesterday. they could wave that instead of having to conjure up money out of thin air to give to me so that i can give it back to them.

 

They mean Everyone, except themselves.

 

i can see people falling into the trap of deferring payments on loans. that's the last thing i would want to have to do. stop paying off my mortgage in a period of the lowest interest rates in history? defer it to later when interest rates rise with inflation from money printing?

 

I was reading (and sorry can't provide link from last week) that whilst the banks will / maygrant 6 month holidays on mortgage / loan repayments, that will show on your credit history and maybe a black mark against your name should this world get back on some form of level footing and business / economic activity.

 

I dont know about credit card debt being totally unsecured, if you have a property I think that they can put a caveat on it so that they get
their money plus interest when you sell the property.
I was lucky in that I was offered a 0% interest for 18 months balance transfer by NAB last month, which I used to transfer all
my other credit card debt onto my NAB card.

 

Yep the banks never want to discuss this as it's their retail "rivers of gold". Even with a circa 5-10% annual default level on credit card debt, the banks are swimming in credit card interest rec'd. They'll usually sell off bad and doubtful credit card debts to "collection agency" who will try and get some recoveries but rarely take people to court and bankrupt them for say $20-40k. Not worth it commercially but they do ensure your credit history is noted with same and then ya rooted.

You mention "With politicians and media constantly talking about "everyone sharing the pain"....I rec'd a broadcast email from local Federal Member last week with an a "Covid-19 Update"....lucky me. As I am quite incensed by what our Fed and State Govt's are doing both financially and socially, I politely replied to my MP and asked that given the policies of the LNP Govt have put so many out of work, then should not our Federal and State politicians (who earn decent coin) share some of their policy pain and not draw a salary for say 6 months?. Surprisingly I today rec'd a reply from this MP who noted and I quote from the email rec'd "The Federal Government has written to the Remuneration Tribunal to request a pay freeze for all parliamentarians."

I'm yet to respond to old mate, but a pay freeze just doesn't cut it. I'm sure I'll find the appropriate words to express my disappointment with this response in the coming days.

 

Cutting or freezing pay rates to Federal politicians is purely symbolic and won't effect the Federal government's capacity to meet its obligations nor affect our level of wealth. The Federal government has more than enough resources to increase politician's pay while at the same time employing most unemployed Australians in meaningful, productive work.

The States are a different matter. The only solution for that is for the Commonwealth of Australia to be dissolved and the States to become their own sovereign nations. That is my preferred option. But it's not going to happen because most Australians view themselves as part of one big family. Which is bullshit but kind of accurate because none of us have any choice into which family we're born.

 

That's just cruel! Imagine people having to travel internationally on a Tasmanian passport!

 

USA. United States of Australia

 

There is the opening salvo of the coming housing crisis/crash.

 

I had this conversation with an RE guy the other night who held the same opinion.

I'm taking the contrarian view. The banks, RBA and Federal government will do all in their power to prevent an RE crash. What is the point in the banks holding defaulted RE in a market wide depression?

It's just too easy to fall into the narrative and assume that asset prices will crash. It was the same narrative after the GFC and that never eventuated either, conversely the opposite happened especially in the share market.

 

Another outcome might be RE holds it current nominal price, while everything else goes up in price.

 

Banks holding debt, can they afford non-payment of loans?
If you think banks need to do more, it might come back to slap you in the face.
How many banks folded after the 2007 -2008 collapse.

List of banks acquired or bankrupted during the Great Recession of 2007 - 2008
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banks_acquired_or_bankrupted_during_the_Great_Recession

This ones a beauty, check this out.
List of bank failures in the United States (2008–present)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bank_failures_in_the_United_States_(2008–present)

 

I can't believe that St George is not signed to the deposit guarantee scheme. Getting my money out of there soon!

 

I seem to remember from Uni history that a large part of the name change to Tasmania was to step away from the deeply stained name of Van Diemen's Land. As a repository of the worst of the worst of the convicts, South Australia, a colony free from convicts, banned pre-taswegians from entry. There were also resistance from Victoria.


Mr Boyce's book traces the power plays between Hobart, Sydney and London and describes the key personalities of early Melbourne.

It describes moves by the burgeoning Melbourne settlers to distance themselves from Van Diemen's Land, passing laws to ban the arrival of the southern islanders and turning back their boats.

"Once the colony really took off, they wanted to really 'sanitise' their past," he says.

"One of the things they really wanted to do is pretend to be convict-free."

 

que microchipping people to enable complete surveillance 24hrs a day.

"it's so we can easily trace pandemics"