NewsBite

Jonathan Kearns

September 2024

The government is aiming to achieve the first legislated changes to the 1959 RBA Act that substantially improve the operational framework for setting interest rates.

There’s a straightforward way to clear RBA board logjam

An alternative structure for the new monetary-policy-setting board could satisfy Labor and the concerns of the Coalition and former governors.

July 2024

Just counting the number of people looking for work no longer captures labour spare capacity; the number of hours they want to work matters.

Reserve Bank’s path to a soft landing is very narrow indeed

Further rate rises would make it harder for the RBA to achieve the trifecta of a small rise in spare labour, with employment still increasing and inflation back at target.

May 2024

We need to prepare in good times for the next big shock. These are the good times

We are a long way from even a balanced budget. If we are going to have a fiscal war chest for the next big shock, we need to prepare now.

  • Updated

March 2024

David Swensen in 2005. He reduced Yale’s investments in shares in favour of illiquid assets.

Want better returns? Cut back on shares, bonds

University endowments and the Future Fund indicate that long-term bets on private equity and other unlisted assets produce better returns.

February 2024

RBA governor Michele Bullock

The evidence is that immaculate disinflation is unlikely in Australia

Economic conditions indicate the cash rate has not been high enough, increasing the risk inflation will persist, and this means it will take longer before the RBA can cut rates.

August 2023

How to vaccinate the RBA against groupthink

The Reserve Bank’s new monetary policy committee should operate like the diverse body of health experts that approved the COVID-19 vaccines.

April 2023

Australians are facing an economic environment of rapidly rising interest rates.

Australia’s central bank gets a new culture of debate

A panel of experts at the very pinnacle of the RBA will lift the standards expected in the bank’s internal analysis.

The RBA needs more clarity and transparency in its public debates.

RBA needs more data and more debate

Monetary policy is as much an art as it is science. But it needs deeper research and the broadest possible debate if it is to work well.

March 2023

Who should sit with the Governor in the RBA’s board room?

Global experience says a two-tiered RBA board is better

The Reserve Bank needs inside experts to decide monetary policy and well-credentialed outsiders to help supervise a very complex organisation.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/by/jonathan-kearns-p536sa