She and the other panelists were being questioned mainly on the economy. It came as no surprise when Ms Ridout offered the idea that Australia should engage in asset recycling. 

How that is achieved is difficult to determine, as most governments seem to just sell whatever they can and do not reinvest. 

It is worth pointing out that everything they sell was purchased or built with taxpayers’ money. 

New purchases are generally negative in return. 

It also came as no surprise when Ms Ridout told the audience that there was plenty of money to finance infrastructure, both locally and internationally. 

This is the growing problem of many countries in the world, and although the “economists” say that we are okay because we only owe 28.6 per cent of our GDP, that figure is heading north. 

The Reserve Bank of Australia recently made available to the private banking industry in Australia, $380 billion that could be called on in times of stress. 

The private banking industry is leveraging their deposits by about 26.5 to one. That means for every 

$1 dollar deposited in their bank they can lend $26.5 (this information is taken from an article by Christopher Joye, a journalist for a major business and finance newspaper), and that $26.5 is just an average, so some may exceed 30 to one. 

The whole gift is designed to stop banks failing. In the event of a bank needing money to keep it “competitive” the bank will take a heap of mortgages down the road, hand them over to the RBA and get a sub to keep them in the lending game.

That facility of $380 billion belongs to the taxpayer and if they lose it to the banks it will be paid for by the taxpayer. 

Now, this begs the question: If the RBA can lend money to banks, why cannot they lend money to the federal government, on terms more beneficial than that is now the case?

Of course they can, and it remains in doubt who is stopping the RBA from lending to the federal government. Is it a local order?

Or is it the local financial wizards who say “proper financial management demands that we borrow from private banks at a market rate of interest”? 

Some of our major trading partners use their reserve system to finance government and these include China, Japan, India, Brazil and Russia, while South Africa has seen the light. 

The time has come to stop governments transferring public money into the private banking system. 

Kenneth Gailbraith is noted for saying “I have never known a country to go broke, borrowing off themselves.” 

Neil Forscutt

Willow Tree