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."

Sunday, February 13, 2011

RBA's Stevens cuts to chase: less stimulus = lower rates

This is a great little exchange...

Mr Stevens —Fiscal stimulus did what it did. We observed that and we factored that into our forecasts and did what we did, and as it turns out the private sector recovered confidence pretty quickly and demand recovered faster than we had feared it would, so we responded to that. That is our job. Your question really is: would rates have been lower if the fiscal policy had been tighter?

Mr CIOBO —Precisely.

Mr Stevens —We have been through this many times—most times in these hearings—and the answer is: that is right. The second question is: is that a better outcome? Not necessarily. It could be; maybe not.

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at 9:02 PM