Alongside the RBA's non-specialist (save for Warwick McKibbin) and weak Board, the Committee is meant to serve as taxpayers' key governance check on the RBA, but rarely does so. The RBA execs normally get a free-ride as the pollies try to out-do each other with vain attempts to extract a supportive statement from the otherwise taciturn RBA. You know the drill: Wasn’t the stimulus crucial to saving our bacon during the GFC Guv'nor? Surely government spending is going to crowd out the private sector and drive up interest rates Guv'nor? Booooring.
With the departure of Scott Morrison, probably the smartest guy on the Committee is the Deputy Chair, Jamie Briggs. Briggs is a young Liberal Party gun who used to work in Howard's office. But he is meant to be a progressive. While I don't know him personally, he appears to have a lot of innate intelligence. It is disappointing that Morrison is no longer a member of the Committee, since he added a great deal of value to the process last time around by telescoping in on the Governor's real views with regard to housing.
Separately, the auction market is once again surprising on the upside in 2010. Sydney and Melbourne are displaying very healthy clearance rates, as is Adelaide. The one typically weak performer was Brisbane...The remaining markets are too thin to judge.
