Pages

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The ANZ Bank is NZ's own Colonial East India Company....


The ANZ Bank is NZ's own Colonial East India Company, indistinguishable from the government, shipping the gold bounty away to the motherland.

Who was sitting next to Prime Minister Luxon on NZ's Airforce One, which conked out and got replaced by Air NZ One, on his trade-trip to Japan recently? Antonia Watson, the CEO of ANZ Bank, of course. Who was the Chair of ANZ, who stood down a short time ago? The current NZ PM's mentor and close friend and confidant, John Key, who helped get him his current job. Who's on the Board of the NZ Initiative, the National Party's unofficial economic adviser? Another former Chair of ANZ. Who did ANZ hire to deflect bad publicity that the company is a blood-sucking monopoly? Jessica Mutch McKay, now Head of Government Relations at ANZ.

She's formerly TVNZ's highest profile reporter, who conducted the Leaders Debates at the last election. If you're a journalist in NZ these days, especially working for a State broadcaster, then the deal is to be a leopard and change your spots. One day you're a raving leftie. The next you're a raving far right supporter of Big Business interests. All at the flick of a switch. A mercenary for hire. ANZ, though Australian registered, has a majority of its shareholders being Americans.

So what's the deal? Practically the same as the UK's East India Company. Become indistinguishable from the government. Then ship the loot back to the mother country by exploiting the locals. ANZ is a modern reincarnation of this type of outfit. But don't worry. ANZ's sophisticated Comms & Marketing Team will kill this story in the Main Stream Media and ensure it never gets traction. Meanwhile Finance Minister Willis has sent the Commerce Commission's report to the Treasury asking for advice because she has no plan of her own (and doesn't want one). What will be the outcome? If the right-wing think they're clever in NZ, they don't know what's going to hit them. 

Public anger will grow. And sooner or later the attack on what are seen as illegitimate Big Business interests made up of useless people who never invented a single interesting product in their life will begin. It will start with capital & asset taxes. The root of the problem is that most of the folks on the boards running many our biggest companies are no Steve Jobs types. Most of them are useless. Most of them have got there by virtue of the Old Boys and Old Girls clubs. Before blowing up the NZ public sector, NZ's private sector should take a look at itself and see what an ugly picture it has become.

Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

One big corporate club (crime syndicate) and we ain't in it.

Anonymous said...

I would far rather see four big and stable banks supporting our economy than twenty baby banks that are ill equipped to weather the economic storms that hit from time to time. But then left wing commentators like McCulloch who promote competition are hardly being honest given that their core values are State command and control of the economy, and that only needs one State owned bank.

Anonymous said...

Professor, you should have added to this comment, that Antonia Watson has "come out swinging" (it is in print) against the Banking Report, suggesting that a Monopoly exists and that (in her words) that having another Bank establish here in New Zealand is not acceptable. In other words, Australian Banking Mafia, the ANZ being the "Boss, Don, of the Banking Family [of Australian Banks] " - to which I take an insinuation from her comments, that they would fight against any other Banking enterprise trying to establish in New Zealand. That is why they spent money in buying the National Bank of New Zealand, to reduce competition.

CXH said...

Anon @ 11.53. Yet these same big banks would quickly put their hands out if they had a problem. Too big to fail would be the cry, all while laughing about our stupidity and giving themselves even bigger bonuses.

Post a Comment

Thanks for engaging in the debate!

Because this is a public forum, we will only publish comments that are respectful and do NOT contain links to other sites. We appreciate your cooperation.