Cashing in on the cashless society

While the world’s media was trying to get a handle on Russia and Ukraine, my counter-cyclical approach was to investigate the move towards a cashless society. Retailers and banks have been (stealthily), moving away from having their shop assistants and tellers handle cash. Maybe it was already happening, but the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the push by retailers in particular, to insist on people using a debit card to pay for goods and services. The rational…

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The People’s Bank and Privatisation

My first reaction to the news that the Commonwealth Bank had made a $9.67 billion profit was a typical champagne socialist rant. “What social justice reforms could we achieve with that kind of money?” I fumed (something non-smokers rarely do). For perspective, CommBank’s profit is more than double the $4 billion allocated to the Federal Media, Arts and Sporting industries in the March budget. It’s also twice the amount the Federal Government allocated to affordable…

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