THE FAIRY TALES WE BANK ON: How Neoliberal Myth, Regulatory Failure, and Political Cowardice Built a System That Eats the Vulnerable (Part 2)

Part IV: The Interconnected Web

From Banks to Police

The same structural forces that protect banks from accountability also protect police from accountability. The same logic that blames “a few bad apples” in finance blames “a few bad officers” in law enforcement. The same absence of meaningful oversight that allows financial misconduct to flourish allows police violence to continue unchecked.

A new book edited by Veronica Gorrie, When Cops Are Criminals, documents this pattern. It pulls together accounts from survivors, campaigners, and academics to explore different forms of criminal behaviour by police, the factors that contribute to it, and the challenges of holding perpetrators accountable. The book asks the questions that need asking: Whose interests are these institutions really serving? And where can people turn when the institutions that are supposed to protect them are the ones doing the damage?

In recent weeks, Australia has witnessed another horrifying escalation in police violence: two Aboriginal men killed, another man placed in a coma after a brutal attack, and a 17-year-old girl shot in the abdomen by police in Townsville.

Debbie Kilroy of the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls put it plainly: “This shooting of a child by police is not an isolated incident. It is not a matter of ‘procedures gone wrong.’ It is a cultural crisis. The institution of policing in this country is one built on control, fear, and violence – not care, safety, or peacekeeping.”

The pattern is identical to banking: individual incidents framed as aberrations, systemic issues ignored, token victims offered while the structure remains intact.

The Missing Link: Political Incentives

Josh Frydenberg now champions the Zionist cause. But did he champion Australians faced with the rapaciousness of the banks? The record shows otherwise.

The question is not why Frydenberg changed. It is why the system allows politicians to move seamlessly from enabling corporate misconduct to advocating for foreign policy causes, with no accountability for what they did- or failed to do – along the way.

The same applies to the Big Build rorts. The unions will be blamed. Token prosecutions may follow. But the business interests that profited from the corruption? The developers who received contracts despite connections to organised crime? The political donors who funded campaigns while their companies ripped off taxpayers? They will be carefully avoided.

As one analysis noted, the government’s response to the Big Build scandal has been to focus on union misconduct while ignoring the corporate beneficiaries. The pattern is consistent: blame the workers, protect the owners.

Part V: The Speed of Light Problem

“Funds are transferred at the speed of light to a bank, not so fast when the customer makes a deposit.”

This is not an accident. It is a feature.

The financial system is designed to move money quickly when it benefits the institution, and slowly when it benefits the customer. Settlement times favor the bank. Error correction favors the bank. Dispute resolution favors the bank.

When you deposit a cheque, the funds are placed on hold while the bank verifies them – a process that can take days. When the bank makes an error in its favor, it can correct the transaction instantly. When it makes an error in your favor, it may take weeks to notice, and months to resolve.

This asymmetry is not technical. It is structural. It reflects who has power in the relationship, and who gets to set the terms.

Part VI: The Young Officer and the System

The young police officer who sees his world challenged. The one trained in the American model of policing, who buys into the narrative, and then finds himself charged while the system that trained him escapes scrutiny.

He is a victim too. Not of his own choices – he is responsible for his actions. But of a system that set him up to fail. That trained him to see threat where there is distress. That armed him with weapons and gave him no tools for de-escalation. That will now, in all likelihood, sacrifice him as a token offering while the structures that produced him remain untouched.

The pattern repeats in banking. Junior employees are charged. Mid-level managers are fired. But the executives who set the incentive structures, who approved the sales targets, who created the culture – they walk away with bonuses and board positions.

The Financial Accountability Regime (FAR) was supposed to change this. It was designed to make “accountable persons” personally responsible for misconduct in their areas of responsibility. But as with so many reforms, the implementation lags the rhetoric. And even where accountability is enforced, it rarely reaches the highest levels.

Conclusion: Fairy Tales Have Consequences

The system is built on fairy tales.

The fairy tale that markets are efficient. The fairy tale that deregulation benefits everyone. The fairy tale that banks can regulate themselves. The fairy tale that a few bad apples explain systemic failure. The fairy tale that token prosecutions equal justice.

These fairy tales have consequences.

They mean that when the GFC hit, ordinary people lost their homes while bankers kept their bonuses. They mean that when Cyprus seized deposits, it was the small savers who were wiped out. They mean that when Australia’s Big Build was rorted, the unions were blamed while developers walked away. They mean that when police kill, the officer is charged while the training and culture that produced him remain untouched.

The thread connects it all. Economic theory taught in business schools. Political responses shaped by donor interests. Regulatory bodies starved of resources and oversight. Law enforcement trained to see enemies, not citizens. Media that forgets yesterday’s scandal to cover today’s outrage.

Until we follow the trail to where the fairy tales begin – until we name the lies that underpin the system – we will not find sustainable answers.

The speculators will continue to find solace. Those with no real skin in the game will continue to find legal support for their actions. And the vulnerable will continue to carry the burden.

Changing the system requires more than words. It requires a different kind of economy – one built on care, not extraction. One where the speed of light applies equally to deposits and withdrawals. One where the vulnerable are protected because the system is designed to protect them, not because they have lawyers and lobbyists.

That economy exists. It’s called the garden. And we’re building it, one article at a time.

References

1. Parliament of Australia. (2025). Chapter 3 – Bank culture and conduct. House of Representatives Economics Committee.
2. My Compliance Office. (2025). FAR Sighted: The Changes for Australian Financial Firms.
3. Dissent Magazine. (2025). Can We Remake Finance? Review of Judge, B., Democracy in Default and McCarthy, M.A., The Master’s Tools.
4. The Guardian. (2021). No accounting for banks? Frydenberg’s response to the royal commission is on hold.
5. Gorrie, V. (Ed.). (2024). When Cops Are Criminals. Scribe Publications.
6. Parliament of Australia. (2024). Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2020. Bills Digest No. 46, 2020–21.
7. Financial Newswire. (2025). Govt, Green Senators back less oversight of ASIC, APRA.
8. Investor Daily. (2019). Industry responds to final royal commission report.
9. The National Network. (2025). Another Police Shooting: We Must Name This for What It Is – State Violence.

Dr Andrew Klein PhD holds multiple degrees and has worked as an analyst, strategist, and – according to his mother – Sentinel. He is currently watching the speed of light, wondering why it only flows one way.

See also:

THE FAIRY TALES WE BANK ON: How Neoliberal Myth, Regulatory Failure, and Political Cowardice Built a System That Eats the Vulnerable

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