Melbourne Cup at work, RBA cuts interest rate

We had a huge Melbourne Cup lunch at work today. Everyone at the firm (about 140-160 people) gathered at the main lunch room at Level 6, to gave a meal together before the start of the Melbourne Cup. The food was all catered - chicken, beef roasts, vegetable salad, buns. Reasonable, though nothing out of this world. It was a good chance for me to spend some time chatting with some colleagues & getting to know them a little better. Then "the race that stops a nation", as the Melbourne Cup is known, kicked off. The Cup was won by the horse named Viewed (strange name?). A few colleagues had put some money on some of the horses, & some of them won money. I didn't place any bets (I know nothing about horses), so no pain no gain for me.

is apparently trying to boost the economy & avoid further slumps. The And meantime, today, the Reserve Bank of Australia slashed the interest rate by 75 basis point (i.e. by 0.75%). Good news for those looking to buy a home, but not so for those investors with sizeable cash savings. The interest rate cut comes in the wake of the global financial crisis, & RBARBA's actions raise a couple of questions. Firstly, is the massive correction an admission by the RBA that they made an error when they originally increased the interest rate around the end of 2007 & the start of 2008? Secondly, will the banks pass on the interest rate cut to the consumers? The banks were quick to raise their loan interest rates when the RBA increased the official interest rate in 2007 & early 2008 - but not so quick to raise deposit rates. But now that the RBA has gone the other way, will the banks follow quickly? I doubt it. It's all self-serving behaviour by the banks - which is not good for us customers.