Australian Industry: Commonwealth Bank

Australian Industry: Commonwealth Bank

Introduction - All over the western world it is becoming more common for governments to privatize publicly owned companies. However, is the privatization of publicly owned businesses beneficial to the Australian economy? This essay will examine this question with specific reference to the recent privatization of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

History - The Commonwealth Bank of Australia was first founded in 1911 and was the first bank to combine both savings and general trading in the same company. This ingenuity gained them the security of a federal government guarantee and created ties between the bank and the federal government. From this foundation, the CBA became a government owned company. However, poor returns and inefficiency recently left the government no option but to privatize the company.

Privatization Theory - A basic argument given for privatization is that persons who work in government owned companies have fe...