In a 5am spot yesterday, Stuff published this opinion piece. It’s an interesting summation.
Last week the Prime Minister decried the level of bank profits and asked, “in the current environment, does it speak to a level of social licence?” She then continued in a nice bit of Maoist resonance, to state; “It doesn’t always take government intervention for that kind of self-reflection to occur. It’s time the banks operating in New Zealand did that very thing.” […]
The term social license has no philosophical or ideological underpinnings. It lacks even the dignity of its own Wikipedia page. The concept appears to emerge from the Australian mining sector in 2005 and has been latched onto by consultants and flunkies with no practical skills as a means of grifting a living off those who do.
Ardern knows that the banks are operating within the law and that she has no legal authority to do anything about their profits. The Crown has set the rules of commerce and the banks are playing within them. […]
The Prime Minister has not detailed what is an appropriate level of bank profitability but as she ponders this perhaps she can run the slide rule over the harm caused by that other bank that dominates our financial sector like a massive kauri tree in a forest; the Reserve Bank.
[…]
Orr’s mistakes in pricing the bonds during his 53 billion dollar money printing splurge has cost the taxpayers over nine billion dollars.
These actions are causing real suffering for Kiwis, in contrast with the mostly accounting profits being made by the banks.
If trading banks, operating within the law are risking their social license, how does a central bank governor who has failed in his single most important duty, price stability, retain his? Orr was re-appointed for a further five years last week despite the persistent failures of the bank under his leadership.
Read more here. Discuss it on The BFD.
