Thursday, June 02, 2005

Rage Against the Bubble

This is an interesting article from the Reserve Bank of Australia on asset bubbles and monetary policy.

It is not interesting for the content, which is inaccessible to the non-quantitatively inclined, but for the topic itself.

The first sentence of the introduction reads: "In a low-inflation economy, the bursting on an asset-price bubble can have significant and long lasting-consequences, both for the economy and for the operation of monetary policy."

Really? Talk about world class arse covering!

Now let me think about this?
  1. Are we in a low inflation economy? Yes!
  2. Do we have an asset bubble? Why......yes we do!
  3. Is it likely to burst? Um...well yes I think so!
  4. Is the economy going to be totally flushed down the proverbial? Absolutely!

....and did the Reserve Bank do anything to prevent it? No. But we published this paper in June 2005 explaining that this was just about the happen...so it's not our fault....please blame the politicians.

There is a reason the Reserve Bank is independant, because unlike politicans they are supposed to be above short term politically motivated considerations.

http://www.rba.gov.au/rdp/RDP2005-04.pdf
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