This is the ship of fools that nearly cut rates 50bps in May, then didn’t cut at all in the following meeting despite an economy that had clearly deteriorated.
- Chair Michele Bullock is not a macroeconomist.
- Deputy chair Andrew Hauser is a macroeconomist
- Marnie Baker AM is not a macroeconomist.
- Renée Fry-McKibbin is a macroeconomist.
- Ian Harper AO is not a macroeconomist.
- Carolyn Hewson AO is not a macroeconomist.
- Iain Ross AO is not a macroeconomist.
- Alison Watkins is not a macroeconomist.
- Jenny Wilkinson PSM is not a macroeconomist.
In other words, only two of nine members of the RBA’s shiny new Monetary Policy Board are qualified for the job.
I’m not saying everybody on the board should be a macroeconomist, but they should surely make up the majority.
For instance, the Federal Reserve Board is made up of eight macroeconomists plus a motley crew of four.
Having a chair that isn’t qualified is a weird one. Like Michele Bullock, Jay Powell is not a macroeconomist, but then, he was picked by Donald Trump.
Powell is only the second Fed chair in a century not to be a macroeconomist.
As well, the Board is two-thirds female, whereas the study of macroeconomics is two-thirds men. Meritocracy, not.
Having said all of that, the primary problem at the RBA is not the Board; it is corruption, given that it will never mention immigration and its effects in any analysis or forum.
This is openly absurd, given that immigration has been the number one macroeconomic input into the Australian growth model since 2013.
The RBA is just another hapless Australian institution sinking into the morass of a demerging market.
