The next global financial crisis is well and truly under way, but don’t let the culprits get away with just blaming the coronavirus!
When a virus can smash your financial system, it’s time to throw out your economic delusions and face up to the fact that the problem is the financial system.
Yes, the pandemic is very serious, but all it has done is show up how unproductive and unprepared our and many other economies are.
After then-Treasurer Scott Morrison announced the $10,000 cash ban in the 2018 budget, his successor Josh Frydenberg estimated to Parliament that the government’s “black economy” interventions, of which the cash ban is one, would bring in an additional $5.3 billion in revenue over four years—tempting, to a government desperate to balance the budget.
Piggybacking off the Australian bushfires, and in time to appeal to the 119 oh-so-wonderful billionaires assembled at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the architects of “bail-in” at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have warned that the next global financial crisis could come from a “green swan” climate change event.
Not so fast.
Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has introduced an urgent bill into the Australian parliament directing the Commonwealth Auditor-General to conduct a thorough audit of the risks building up in the banking system.
Bob Katter will open a new battlefront in the war on financial corruption when he introduces the Australian Banks (Government Audit) Bill 2019 in Parliament on Monday 25 November.
Expect stifled fits of rage and gnashing of teeth in the board rooms of the Big Four banks and among the partners of the even bigger four global accounting firms when he does it.
Australians can have no confidence in the health of the major banks from the annual audits of their books.
This is the conclusion to be drawn from Digital Finance Analytics Principal Martin North’s submission to the Parliamentary inquiry into the regulation of auditing, which highlights four areas where audits fail to assess the true state of Australia’s banks.
