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Andrew Mohl

June 2022

RBA governor Philip Lowe stunned with a supersized increase to the cash rate on Tuesday.

The RBA’s failings are legion. It needs a truly independent review

The RBA did not foresee the surge in inflation. It would be naive to believe it can now forecast how and when it can be tamed.

February 2022

Shots of loose money were the last thing that housing markets needed.

How the RBA sadly lost its way

Twice now the Reserve Bank has been forced into embarrassing retreats. But that is still not going to protect us from the hangover of monetary policy excess.

September 2021

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is right to prepare the community for a very different lifestyle and set of freedoms when vaccinations hit 70 per cent.

NSW jab data says we can beat the Doherty predictions

Vaccination is working much better than forecast at controlling COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations, putting NSW in a good position to exit lockdown within a couple of months.

August 2021

The battle with delta is lost, but the war can still be won

There is no hope of suppression to zero cases: we must return to flattening the curve to stop hospitals being overwhelmed with unvaccinated sick people.

July 2021

A deserted mall in western Sydney.

How Sydney can wrest back virus victory over restrictions

NSW has suffered a late setback, but the priority now is to get vaccines out and preserve the state’s human capital.

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Vaccine crawl: Our leaders are preferring to use a carrot rather than a stick.

Our leaders have baulked at tough virus choices

By taking soft options on sealing the border, hard lockdowns and compulsory vaccinations, politicians are appeasing vocal minorities at the cost of the greater good, writes Andrew Mohl.

June 2021

Gladys Berejiklian is still correct that only the vaccine can provide the “road to freedom”.

Sydney lost a lockdown lottery

We made our bed when we continued to allow exempted international arrivals into a makeshift hotel quarantine system and now we have to lie in it, writes Andrew Mohl.

March 2021

Philip Lowe: no sign whatsover of wages rising .

The RBA’s bond splurge has a big sting

The central bank is fixated on creating jobs, but its strategy is not enough to do that, and there could be a nasty end.

The RBA’s Philip Lowe: borrowers assume that the RBA must be getting it right.

Take away the punch bowl Dr Lowe, it’s making us sick

The RBA governor is the ring leader of another house price party. But he does not have the control that everyone thinks.

February 2021

Returning international travellers have been responsible for outbreaks.

Make the border unbreachable

Repeat quarantine outbreaks prove the only way to prevent damaging lockdowns is slamming the international border shut to returning travellers with no exceptions.

December 2020

Scott Morrison has kicked the can down the road until next May's federal budget.

Fully close the international borders – with no exceptions

Returning travellers have been the source of Australia's major outbreaks. We have to accept that quarantine is too flawed to work.

November 2020

Australian SAS soldiers in Afghanistan: many actions are now being questioned.

Defence leadership has failed us on war crimes allegations

Echoes of plausible deniability have run through the financial services and the Catholic Church in the past. Now it's the armed forces' turn.

July 2020

Former prime minister John Howard with the 'debt truck' on the forecourt of Parliament House.

Beware free riders in these uncharted waters

That no one even remembers the Coalition’s debt truck shows how the pre-COVID-19 economic rule book no longer applies. But we need to be wary of free riders and the free lunch brigade.

Daniel Andrews is in the crosshairs in Victoria.

Stay the course on suppression

Any strategy - suppression or elimination - depends entirely on execution. Get that wrong, and nothing will work.

May 2020

A lot of trade-offs between distancing and permanent economic damage.

The next virus decisions are critical

Some countries may end up with a bigger death toll than ours but a superior economic recovery. So who is right?

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April 2020

Suppression: the reproduction rate of COVID-19 had fallen before the social distancing restrictions were put in place.

It's luck that has saved us from the pandemic

The flattening curve may not be due to the shutdown but to Australia's strong natural defences against the coronavirus.

Travel bans and social distancing rules have drastically reduced footfalls at Australia's prime tourist destinations, and economists anticipate a telling effect of the drop in tourism on the economy.

There is now an exit path from this lockdown

We may have been too pessimistic about the success of lockdown. Now the health experts should take charge of a phased ending to social and economic restrictions.

It's time to ease the shutdown strategy

The infection curve is flattening out much faster than anyone hoped. An easing of the lockdown policy may be warranted soon.

December 2019

The Reserve Bank says wage and inflation growth is still some way off and further rate cuts are needed to stimulate the economy and employment.

Hayne's $65b shock to Australia

The financial services royal commission set off a train of unintended consequences, culminating in the biggest slowdown in bank lending in a generation, write Andrew Mohl.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/by/andrew-mohl-p4yvop