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, June 8, 2012

Did Dr Don Brash really comment on my popular RBA piece?

Not sure, but this was a comment left under his name:

"Don Brash wrote:

Chris, I'm not as familiar with the Australian situation as most other commentators, but I tend to agree that the high Aussie dollar has been an important factor in keeping CPI inflation under control recently (Reining in the RBA, June 8). With the dollar weakening, that influence on inflation will disappear.

I'm a bit surprised that the RBA board is stacked with business people, who for the most part will have a strong bias towards easing. In the NZ case, there are business people on the RBNZ board, but the board has no decision-making role in monetary policy. Decision-making is vested in the governor, with the board being responsible for reporting to the treasurer on the governor's performance if inflation goes outside the agreed inflation target. That avoids the worst conflicts of interest."

at 8:11 PM