Thanks to everyone who showed up on Jan 22 to tell Macquarie Bank to take their shady money back down under! Here is a video of the demo. And, in more news of the weird, the following day Kevin Falcon called a press conference to make an announcement re: Port Mann financing...then failed to show up. Hmmmmm....
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Australia-based Macquarie Bank is one of the most aggressive international corporations promoting the privatization of public assets and services globally, and is heavily involved in constructing private toll freeways.
The have been involved in numerous questionable deals where corruption is suspected to be a factor. They lead the consortium of corporations that is negotiating to build the Highway 1 / Port Mann freeway expansion and run it for 40 years. So far Macquarie has failed to raise the $2.3 billion they need for the scheme, and no final contract has been signed.
However, recently they have been accused of questionable practices towards shareholders and investors, not just the public interest. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation report that one of their funds has been “paying investors dividends out of borrowed money - money borrowed against rising asset valuations”. Basically, the suspicions is that they are running a new variation of the Ponzi scam and that it is about to collapse.
A recent Public Private Partnership (P3) freeway promoted by Macquarie is the Brisbane toll road. It “has become the butt of jokes in the finance sector given the security price of its first instalment has fallen from $1 to 0.1c."
Like Enron and the US investment banks before, Macquarie's business model seems to be unravelling. And the public purse is where the corporations go for handouts when their Ponzi schemes unravel.
No Bailout for Macquarie! No Bailout for Gateway!
For more info see:
Vancouver Sun
Port Mann Bridge financing thrown into question
The Sydney Morning Herald:
Macquarie throws $500,000 Christmas Party, lays off 1000 staff
The Province
Lack of financing for Gateway projects doesn't worry government
BC Local News:
Financing fears grow over P3 projects
The Province
Port Mann private-financing woes embolden NDP
Join the Freeway Fighters this Thursday at noon to tell Macquarie to take their sketchy deal back down under! DETAILS
Comments
1 comment postedHad to laugh at that line in the Sun about Port Mann financing:
"a rumour in the market suggested another reason for the delay: that the banks no longer like the pricing structure of the debt"
You don't say.
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