Here's some background to former US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's visit to New Zealand this week. He is currently in Wellington attending a non-public, invitation-only conference at the Reserve Bank of NZ. I was specifically excluded from attending due to my critiques of the Bank. Don't think this country values free speech. When you speak out in NZ, you are out. Ex-communicated by the Comms teams. It actually costs you a lot of money since you forego consideration for any big appointments once you're viewed, like me, as a "trouble maker".
Anyhow, it turns out Bernanke worked at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in the US, where I also worked for two years. He has cited my work in the American Economic Review on the costs of inflation in his speeches, including when he was Chair of the Fed. On this current trip out of NZ, the Reserve Bank has bought him return Business Class Air-tickets for $15,000 and the event is private. My attempt to get him to NZ involved zero public money. It would've been paid with money that a donor, Sir Douglas Myers, gifted to the University. Our events would've been open to the public, like our Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series. Furthermore, when we invited out prominent Harvard Professor and the world's leading urban economist, Ed Glaeser, under the Myers scheme, to help fix housing and infrastructure, we organized for him to speak to Auckland City Council, meet Auckland's mayor, do radio talk shows, and fly to Wellington to meet politicians & government departments, give public lectures, and also speak at Canterbury University. It is common decency to "share around" big name visits to NZ with others that don't have the money to fund, in the spirit of what best promotes prosperity for all.
Why, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, does the Reserve Bank throw around Business Class Air-tickets for invitation-only events and keep the riff-raff public, like you and me, out?
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.
Why, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, does the Reserve Bank throw around Business Class Air-tickets for invitation-only events and keep the riff-raff public, like you and me, out?
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.
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