Ken Henry joins the oligarchs

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Apparently Ken Henry is to succeed Michael Chaney as NAB chairman at the end of this year. I’m a bit torn by this. On the one hand, Henry is a sensible policy-maker with a strong sense of the public good, and may be well placed to help NAB navigate the very difficult times ahead. On the other he will give the bank even stronger inside ties to regulatory bodies and, if not trusted to behave with absolute integrity, further undermine governance of the banking system.

Henry was already a board member but the chairmanship is an altogether greater responsibility.

I guess we’ll have to reserve judgement but it’s a worry.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.