There is talk that the US Federal Reserve may begin lifting interest rates again in August. Now this is something that some commentators find unusual (*) (*). However I think it is consistent for Dr Bernanke to slash rates as he has and then turn around to tighten, given the way he views inflation targeting. […]
With the actions of the finance minister and the RBNZ both contradicting what I have learned about sound economic management it is time for me to take to task some of the more aggressive issues I have avoided up until now. Today, my aim is to discuss the (lack) fiscal responsibility associated with Dr Cullen’s […]
So far we have described that there is some belief that we have some problems in our capital market, this has lead to the statement that we have a “savings problem” and to solve it the government introduced Kiwisaver – which may not even increase national savings (infact it might reduce it). These articles have […]
My apologises for the lack of updating over the past few days. I am still in shock from the recent dovish MPS and the following call by Ganesh Nana (and previously by Joe Stiglitz) that inflation targeting was a failure. In a sense I am struggling because I feel betrayed by the economics profession in […]
Before all our cash rate excitement Australia also had a cash rate review and a GDP release. The cash rate review came first. The tone appeared similar to both the April (*) and May (*) cash rate reviews in that it was moderate. Fundamentally the statement said that as long as domestic demand showed further […]
The Reserve Bank left the official cash rate unchanged today at 8.25% – inline with the expectations of most if not all market analysts. However, as always, the devil was in the detail. Starting with the statement, the language surrounding potential cuts changed completely. In March (*) we had “the OCR will need to remain […]