NAB and Westpac’s Secret Bailout Revealed

The first thing we did was check the Companies Index on the back page. This was promising, the two banks in question were mentioned. We eagerly flicked through to the relevant pages … and drew a blank.

Not a single mention of it. So we started from the front and worked our way quickly through the paper … page seven … here it is … “Rescues: RBA borrowed billions from Fed” was the headline … but no, this isn’t what we’re looking for.

On we went, past the big centre-fold spread telling readers that the AFR contains, “Up-to-the-minute market information, news, commentary and expert analysis … All from just $44 per month”.

We continued … through to the end. Not a peep. Not a single mention.

And the AFR is supposed to be Australia’s premium business newspaper. We wouldn’t have thought so.

About all it’s good for is lining bird cages in our opinion.

But then, we guess if the AFR exposed the banks’ duplicity it wouldn’t be able to get an interview with the likes of Commonwealth Bank of Australia [ASX: CBA] CEO Sir. Ralph Norris.

Said person is the feature item in the Boss glossy mag insert in the AFR.

We can’t be bothered reading it. It’s surely pap.

But anyway, what the heck are we going on about? This …

I’m talking about the near collapse of the Australian banking system in 2008. I’m talking about the likelihood of two Australian banks collapsing in 2008 if they hadn’t secured a secret loan from the US Federal Reserve.

The fact that National Australia Bank [ASX: NAB] had to borrow USD$4.5 billion from the US Federal Reserve during 2008 and 2009.