Remember the reasons for RBNZ independence

Fri, 20 Nov 2020

Those people calling for an end to the Reserve Bank’s independence must have forgotten, or be too young to remember, the bad old days when monetary policy was little more than an enabler for fiscal pump-priming. Things came to a head during the 1970s and 1980s, when Robert Muldoon’s dual role as the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance led to dubious economic policies.Having concluded that “most people wouldn’t recognise a budget deficit if they fell over it,” Muldoon was happy to announce significant govern...

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