Swan jawbone blasts Australian dollar higher

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Wayne Swan really needs to learn how to make better use of the Treasurer’s jawbone. The AFR story that I covered this morning about Swan’s commitment to market-based currencies last night coincided with a surge in the Aussie of about three-quarters of a cent. I’ve circled the impolitic moment:

Now, maybe it would have happened anyway. But this is an illustration that well (or ill)-timed comments by powerful individuals can effect values.

If the Treasurer can’t bring himself to endorse a sensible narrative for the Australian dollar perhaps he can at least zip it. 

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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.