One hears the whisper from across the Tasman that Deputy Primeminister Jim Anderton is in the process of establishing a government-funded people's bank (only 12 years after BNZ was privatised) - as an arm of the Post Office (already with outlets across the country) - and as a reaction to 'the colonisation of the NZ finance sector'.
To claims that the public sector can't run a bank, Anderton replies that, if the public infrastructure is so weakened by 15 years of neoliberal pillage'n'plunder that it can't even run its own bank any more, well that speaks for itself. The new bank cops a capital injection, but no subsidy beyond that, and offers the same services at 30% of the fee structure the Ozzie invaders currently charge, at hundreds of outlets where the big boys haven't deemed it necessary to have a physical presence.
They don't like it much, says Anderton, because it means those banks'll have to slash their fees, putting pressure on 'em here at home to slash their fees here, too. So what does Anderton say to the claim that the banks are livid? "Yeah, they don't like it much, but I don't much care." There speaks the sorta bloke who could renew my interest in the polling booth.
Neoliberal 'globalisation's' death of a thousand cuts proceeds apace. I bet quite a few governments and NGOs are watching with interest, too. Is it news in South Africa, Patrick?
The state might still have the odd shot in its locker, eh? That's what I mean by messing with the trajectory of the process, Doug - having a democratic presence in the mechanisms of change, by not forgetting that the state offers the odd option in this process above and beyond the simple xenophobic insulation sought by conservative nationalists.
All hail to the Alliance!, Rob.