About

By Adrian
What's this blog about?

The core problems with contemporary capitalism, their root causes, and ideas on how to reform it.


Why does it exist?

The Hayne Royal Commission has created substantial discussion in Australia about the harm caused by the financial services industry. But it doesn't deal with many issues that affect the most vulnerable, and the mainstream conclusions about causes and solutions is typically superficial or misguided.

I made a brief submission on the Royal Commission's Interim Report. This blog will be an ongoing project to document the issues, deeper explanations and key ideas that are typically ignored, ruled out of scope, and considered too difficult or radical.


Who's the author?

Adrian Lobo. You can contact me at loboadrian AT gmail dot com

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Popular posts from this blog

Submission on Interim Report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in Financial Services

By Adrian
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Summary : The essence of my submission is that the approach taken by the Interim Report - which presumes existing laws are largely sufficient and focuses on how to minimise future breaches of them - will not address the broadest and most significant adverse impacts of the financial services industry on Australians, especially on those most vulnerable and least financially savvy. Misconduct is just the tip of a much larger iceberg of adverse impacts of the financial services industry on Australians. It is entirely feasible to operate "efficiently, honestly and fairly" within existing Australian laws and industry codes and primarily extract wealth from people rather than create value for them and be compensated for it. The key big picture issue is that modern capitalism is plagued by currently-legal activities whose core purpose is to extract value rather than create it.
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The Future of Capitalism - Paul Collier

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Summary :  The Future of Capitalism : "From world-renowned economist Paul Collier, a candid diagnosis of the failures of capitalism and a pragmatic and realistic vision for how we can repair it. Deep new rifts are tearing apart the fabric of the United States and other Western societies: thriving cities versus rural counties, the highly skilled elite versus the less educated, wealthy versus developing countries. As these divides deepen, we have lost the sense of ethical obligation to others that was crucial to the rise of post-war social democracy."
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Has the Hayne Royal Commission been designed to ignore the most significant issues of financial harm affecting Australians?

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Summary : The government, financial services industry and mainstream media have created a completely false impression that the Hayne Royal Commission is an inquiry into the most significant issues of financial harm affecting Australians. Consequently, pretending there's a chance the big issues will be addressed. But the biggest issues are being ignored, thanks to the narrow terms of reference focusing on misconduct, conservative approach of the Royal Commission, and a lack of understanding that the major problems with neoliberal capitalism are its currently-legal predations and its unsuitability to provide services that have a goal other than profit.
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