The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Friday, December 24, 2010

A good summary of central bank risks from FT's Money Supply

Following a review of a new paper from the Bank of Finland, this was well put, I thought:

"The basic conclusion is that central bank risks have vastly increased in the past two years. But these aren’t just financial risks. Banks’ motivations and objectives have expanded along with their balance sheets – particularly into areas previously considered the remit of the markets. Central banks now adopt explicit market-orientated goals, such as influencing long-term yields, improving liquidity, calming the markets and reducing risk premia. New behaviours can, in theory, be rolled back when conditions permit. But new objectives and goals are harder to shed, once people are hired, expectations altered and identities changed. We are still in crisis mode, to some extent, but perhaps it is not too soon to start a critical analysis of which temporary measures are usefully made permanent."