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."

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

What I wrote criticising the RBA *yesterday* before the meeting

Yesterday I commented:

If I was running the RBA, I would have cut by 25 in November, held steady in December, cut 25 in May, and paused today. There is no rush to slash rates right now, and there is ample opportunity to do so if and when we are sure the global economy is starting to unravel. Why not wait for more information? And what is so wrong with an intra-month meeting? If you are in a crisis--you are in a crisis. You are not going to kid anyone otherwise. I think the RBA has been over-engineering monetary policy on the downside since late last year. They have absolutely no idea what is going to happen to the global economy over the next 12 months, and should not be in the business of providing financial markets with cheap insurance. When all is said and done, the staff know they have been bullied into some of these moves.
at 12:34 PM