The effective death of the forward guidance strategy offered by the Bank of England came with the announcement in early February that there would be a switch to a less quantitative approach. Dubbed by…
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 major economies will meet in Sydney this week. A lot of troubled financial waters have flowed under the bridge since this group last met…
Australia’s cost of living is among the highest in the world, despite our low inflation rate. In this series we explore what consumers can expect from the big ticket items - petrol, power and groceries…
The Australian dollar was floated this day in 1983. By 1985, it seemed to take on water, list badly, and sink. And that actually was the idea. The real exchange rate – roughly, the dollar rate, adjusted…
The Reserve Bank of Australia should leave interest rates unchanged this month according to the consensus of Shadow Reserve Board members. Amid market uncertainty over whether the RBA board may choose…
Last week, the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA), the investment bankers’ trade union, announced that it was changing the way that it calculated the Bank Bill Swap rate (BBSW), the Australian…
The consensus of the nine members of the Shadow Board is that the Reserve Bank of Australia should leave interest rates unchanged from March at 3.00%. But the balance of risks implies rates should rise…
Stephen Long’s story last night on the ABC’s Four Corners beautifully illustrated the human cost of financial misconduct, as retirees and widows described the pain of having lost their super funds and…
No change remains the consensus of the nine members of the Shadow Board in the Reserve Bank of Australia holding interest rates unchanged from February at 3.00%. But rates need to rise significantly within…
One certainty about economic forecasts is that, almost certainly, they will prove to be incorrect. The best forecasters can hope for is not to make systematic errors – to get it right on average – and…
The Shadow Reserve Board, an initiative of the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA) made up of eminent industry and academic economists, returns this month. Reserve Bank of Australia board…
Monetary policy must be forward looking. It has limited ability to affect the here and now of the economy, as this has largely already been determined - by employment decisions, investment decisions and…
CAMA’s Shadow Board, which gives its views ahead of the decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia, continues to support the current setting of the cash rate at 3.5%. But economists are seeing a greater…
The latest scandal engulfing Note Printing Australia and Securency highlights how well - or otherwise - the public sector deals with critical issues of transparency, corruption and whistleblowing. The…
As foreign central banks continue to park their money in our triple-A rated bonds, the Australian dollar continues its inevitable ascent. The dollar traded as high as US106.03¢ after the RBA left the interest…
Reactions to my call this week for another inquiry into Australia’s financial system have been mixed. Most commentators seem to accept that there’s logic in having another inquiry, even if some think that…
_The Conversation, in conjunction with the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA), presents the monthly findings of the Shadow Board, prior to the meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia Board…
Central banks everywhere - from Russia to the Czech Republic - are piling into Australian-dollar-denominated assets. This has limited the fall of the Australian dollar to around 3% from its peak even though…
_The Conversation, in conjunction with the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA), will present the monthly findings of the Shadow Board, a day before the Reserve Bank of Australia Board meets…
The former Governor of the Reserve Bank, Bernie Fraser, hit the nail on the head the other night when he found it absurd that the Reserve Bank could be reducing interest rates one day, while a week later…