Don't blame the banks for the house price bubble

Banks need to do what banks do, just like fish need to swim. (Image: istockphoto)

Mon, 21 Feb 2022

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, as the song goes.You could say the same about banks needing to do what banks do, following the incentives the powers that be provide them.Should we expect banks to think about the social and political impact of what they do?Banks often claim they do, but certainly, Auckland University academic Michael Rehm has said they should."Although landlord greed seems to be the primary target of the new housing policies, there is an even larger, greedier actor behind the housing markets: banks," Rehm wrote in a...

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