2020 01
I have an article forthcoming in the March issue of the Australian Economic Review examining the US and Australian evidence on the effect of monetary policy on consumer and business confidence. It has been suggested that recent reductions in official interest rates might have a perverse signalling effect on consumer and business confidence. But that is not what the US and Australian evidence or my own estimates suggest. While consumers talk their book in relation to expectations for their own finances, when it comes to expectations for the economy as a whole, consumers and business are for the most part clear about rate cuts being expansionary for the economy.
As noted in the article, even if rates cuts did have a perverse signalling effect on confidence, this would not be an argument against monetary easing. It implies that the Reserve Bank should not act on its assessment of the economy, which is likely to be self-defeating.
Shane Wright writes up the paper for the SMH/Age in the context of the January consumer confidence release.
posted on 24 January 2020 by skirchner in Monetary Policy
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I have an op-ed in the AFR on the US-China ‘phase one’ trade deal noting its lack of substance in law and economics. To the extent that third parties like Australia are adversely affected by trade diversion, they could mount a case against China at the WTO.
posted on 23 January 2020 by skirchner in Free Trade & Protectionism
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I have an op-ed in the AFR arguing that the perennial predictions of the US dollar’s demise reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the sources of its dominant role in the world economy. The US dollar’s advantages are not easily replicated by putative rivals (text below the fold).
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posted on 09 January 2020 by skirchner in Financial Markets
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