Let's maintain the Main Stream Media manipulation theme for a few more blogs. Why? Because its real. Yesterday the Herald ran an OpEd by an "expert" on monetary policy. Who is that "expert"? Its a guy called Toby Moore who is described as .. wait for it .. a student. Yes a student is going to lecture us on the theme of "Why the Governments New Reserve Bank Mandate May Lead to Worse Outcomes".
The Herald describes Toby at the end of the article as being "a doctoral candidate at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, and a former Beehive advisor". Why did the Herald not tell the full truth - and instead manipulate readers by not disclosing that this article may not be expert opinion from a trained monetary economist but a partisan, left-leaning piece of propaganda designed to get you to vote Labour? Because Toby Moore was a Senior Adviser to Labour Finance Minister, Grant Robertson.
What does he write? That "Unfortunately, the case that has been made for repealing the dual mandate does not stand up to the barest level of scrutiny. Had the Reserve been operating under a single inflation-targeting objective in recent years, it would not have led to any different outcome in current inflation levels".
A galaxy of the world's top monetary economists would disagree with him, including former Reserve Bank Chairman Arthur Grimes who told me that Labour's adoption of the dual mandate was a big mistake. There is a strong argument that "in recent years" the Bank printed $NZ 100 billion because it was concerned during Covid not only of deflation, but also of unemployment rising. I have proof. The Bank forecast early on in the pandemic that unemployment would go up & stated in writing how money printing (or "Quantitative Easing") was being done to avoid a deep recession & support higher employment. However, the Bank made a huge error of judgment which cost NZ dearly: because the government borrowed & spent $20 billion on the wage subsidy scheme, as well as billions on other programs to keep people in jobs during Covid, unemployment hit record lows. By mistakenly flooding the economy with cash at a time of full employment, runaway inflation ensued. (And this is coming from me, the person who, I believe, was the one who first proposed to the Labour Finance Spokesperson many years ago how the Party should adopt the dual mandate as a policy, not because I thought it was good, but at least was better than the awful alternatives it was considering at that time when David Cunliffe was leader).
The above explanation of stuffed-up monetary policy due to the dual mandate forms the basis of its repeal by National. So I have a problem with the Herald article - it is trying to influence people to have a negative impression of National and is written by an author who is a close associate of Grant Robertson which was not disclosed.
Sources:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/why-the-governments-new-reserve-bank-mandate-may-lead-to-worse-outcomes-toby-moore/RFQGBPC7IBC3BEXNGNFG7KTRMQ/
What does he write? That "Unfortunately, the case that has been made for repealing the dual mandate does not stand up to the barest level of scrutiny. Had the Reserve been operating under a single inflation-targeting objective in recent years, it would not have led to any different outcome in current inflation levels".
A galaxy of the world's top monetary economists would disagree with him, including former Reserve Bank Chairman Arthur Grimes who told me that Labour's adoption of the dual mandate was a big mistake. There is a strong argument that "in recent years" the Bank printed $NZ 100 billion because it was concerned during Covid not only of deflation, but also of unemployment rising. I have proof. The Bank forecast early on in the pandemic that unemployment would go up & stated in writing how money printing (or "Quantitative Easing") was being done to avoid a deep recession & support higher employment. However, the Bank made a huge error of judgment which cost NZ dearly: because the government borrowed & spent $20 billion on the wage subsidy scheme, as well as billions on other programs to keep people in jobs during Covid, unemployment hit record lows. By mistakenly flooding the economy with cash at a time of full employment, runaway inflation ensued. (And this is coming from me, the person who, I believe, was the one who first proposed to the Labour Finance Spokesperson many years ago how the Party should adopt the dual mandate as a policy, not because I thought it was good, but at least was better than the awful alternatives it was considering at that time when David Cunliffe was leader).
The above explanation of stuffed-up monetary policy due to the dual mandate forms the basis of its repeal by National. So I have a problem with the Herald article - it is trying to influence people to have a negative impression of National and is written by an author who is a close associate of Grant Robertson which was not disclosed.
Sources:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/why-the-governments-new-reserve-bank-mandate-may-lead-to-worse-outcomes-toby-moore/RFQGBPC7IBC3BEXNGNFG7KTRMQ/
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
Good spotting Robert. Robertson continues to spin the line that he was challenged by turbulent events. Absolute rubbish. He and his brethren created the mayhem either by design or pig ignorance.
A Nation dies when its people are taught (or are manipulated) to hate their own history, heritage and culture.
Toby Moore, described as a student, but a SENIOR ADVISOR to empty moneybags Robertson. Says it all really, presumably his junior advisors are still at primary school?
mr baker is not a 'STUDENT', yet he sprouts crap every day of the week. surely we could cut this poor guy some slack :)
The dual role was absurd. There was not much remaining for the govt to do. Perhaps in was in recognition of the gross ineptitude of modern mps. May as well make one of his roles "The preservation of inter racial harmony." By spending enough on maori they might actually be happy and the others are too meek and cowed to strongly protest.
Have you pointed this out to the herald?
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