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."

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Congrats to Phil Lowe, as predicted

Well, I could not have timed my cartoon any better (see post below). A day after my fictional Roger Corbett speculates that Phil would become the next Governor of the RBA, he is appointed Deputy Governor. I did not appreciate that Phil was 50. There is a fairly wide age gap between Phil and Guy Debelle. While Debelle has developed a somewhat dovish reputation, he has also produced some of the best, and most seminal, research on inflation-targeting (back in the 1990s). An MIT PhD like Lowe, Debelle has also had outstanding, and quite transformational, experience running the RBA's financial markets area since the days of the GFC. While I have expected Phil to win the succession race, I am now thinking it was not so much of a race. Guy could emerge as a truly outstanding successor to Phil one day. He probably needs a little more experience softening the hard edges. Either way, we have two top talents for a great organisation.
at 7:35 AM