The more things change...

Today I write of the proposal that Australia Post provides a range of banking and financial services at post offices nation-wide [1]. This initiative results from two facts: the gluttonous major banks threaten to lift mortgage interest rates above the Reserve Bank’s official rate increases [2], and Australia Post’s revenue and profit are falling [3]. I recall writing on this topic before, so I searched Farmdoc’s Blog. I found two posts on this theme – and they’re remarkably similar to each other. That I posted one in July 2008 [4] and the other in July 2009 [5] is a reason for me to go easy on myself for this repetition. I’ve no idea if the post office bank idea will fly. If it does, it’ll definitely be competition for the current banks. And it may curb their avarice and socially destructive excesses [6]. However it’d undoubtedly be corporate, with the attendant negative connotations of corporatism. Though corporations are staffed by humans, they lack humanity. For example the large Aussie telcos are resisting a government push for them to take action to reduce mobile phone ‘bill shock’ [7]. Regarding the post office bank proposal, my 2-cent bet is that it’ll happen. If so, we’ll return to how it was when I was a lad and post offices were agents for the (then) government-owned Commonwealth Bank. Oh the more things change, the more they stay the same. Ho hum.