A day after announcing an urgent A$10.4 billion (S$10.7 billion) surge in spending to protect the Australia economy from recession, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd blamed the meltdown on failures in lending standards, risk management and corporate governance by the world's major lending institutions. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
CANBERRA - AUSTRALIA'S leader on Wednesday accused Wall Street of 'obscene failures' in corporate governance and blamed 'extreme capitalism' for the financial crisis that is gripping the world.
A day after announcing an urgent A$10.4 billion (S$10.7 billion) surge in spending to protect the Australia economy from recession, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd blamed the meltdown on failures in lending standards, risk management and corporate governance by the world's major lending institutions.
'In fact, obscene failures in corporate governance which rewarded greed without any regard to the integrity of the financial system,' Mr Rudd said in a speech to the National Press Club in the capital, Canberra.
'These failures weren't limited just to businesses on the margins of the financial system. They happened in our major global financial institutions - the Wall Street investment banks that were the pillars of the global financial system.'
He said the 'absurdity and the obscenity' of lending practices in the subprime mortgage market gradually led to a complete collapse in confidence in the financial system.
The 'comprehensive failure of extreme capitalism' had now required government to step in to stem the damage, he said. -- AP
