Comments on: Businesses, retirees and the government teat

By: JamesK

JamesK — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

"There’s a pattern here". there certainly is Bernard Keane. A pattern of self funded retiree bashing from you....... always a cheap shot.

The pattern you actually refer to is a predictable and natural one as any honest economist would confirm.

It is not as a consequence of market forces though. It is, as Steve pointed out, a consequences of a very poor decision of government. A decision that unfairly hammered an industry that had successfully provided competition to the banks. Their customers are, as a direct result of government ineptitude, unable now to access their monies.

As Turnbull pointed much political capital will now be spent trying "to unscramble the omelette"

I note this partisan and unfair article has brought out the loons in the form of John Goldbaum talking through his overworked proverbial

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Bernard. Thank you for pointing out that self funded retirees deserve no sympathy for the government's inept policy implementation. I look forward to seeing you retire in these circumstances, happy in the knowledge you can survive on a pension after saving diligently for your retirement. I will ignore your pleas for a higher-than-poverty line pension; ignore your pleas for any kind of support as you and your ilk can plainly make do on government support.

I will then introduce stupid policies which punish you for following 20 years of supporting superannuation and chortle about your fate.

I also wish to thank you for making sure I do not put another dollar into superannuation. With support like yours, well, I know where my money is better spent.

By: John Goldbaum

John Goldbaum — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Well said, Bernard! If you think you’ll need your capital to pay a debt to the tax office or to buy a house this year, then you should put it in a bank, either at call or in a term deposit. If you invest it in a mortgage trust, it is clearly a possibility that your capital will be frozen until the maturity of the mortgage.

By: Dr Harvey M Tarvydas

Dr Harvey M Tarvydas — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I am with you Mr Keane. Excellent article!

I wrote to ABC Radio National Breakfast a couple of days after the guarantee suggesting that the media had dropped the word ‘bank’ from discussions to assist the clamour for ‘guarantee me’.
“Fran, the word BANK means that it doesn’t cover the deposit your grandmother made with you”.
If the spreading is successful it will come to that. The government has to stand up and stop the rot aimed at a good idea.

By: Frank Birchall

Frank Birchall — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Bernard, I have no problem with your argument on mortgage trusts; however, I certainly have a problem with lumping mortgage trusts and cash management trusts together. The latter are virtual interest-bearing bank accounts and have been for more than 25 years. The better CMTs invest only in short-term bank paper with exceptional credit ratings and enjoying the government guarantee on ADIs. There is little difference between a retail CMT account and an interest-bearing bank account. Yet the latter is government guaranteed and the former is not. I do not know the investment strategy of all CMTs but those run by banks should enjoy the government guarantee.

By: Roy Milne

Roy Milne — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I sincerely hope the Govt. has NOTHING to do with this. If they do, the logical next step will be home owners wanting Govt. guarantee on the value of their home. I am not really happy with the guarantee on Bank deposits;I think Turnbull’s suggestion of a limited guarantee may have been worth looking at. But no use going back now-but no further.