SQ Transp 2048

This was the theme of Rod Oram's article in last Sunday's Sunday Star-Times. It begins:

THE BATTLE to establish progressive new economies against the entrenched forces of regressive old ones has taken a critical turn on both sides of the Tasman over the past fortnight.

In New Zealand, the Reserve Bank and the Labour Party have turned against the prevailing orthodoxy of monetary policy. Their overriding goal remains the control of inflation. But they both say they are seeking new policy tools to mitigate the adverse effects caused by a slavish application of a single tool – interest rates.

If they succeed, we could get lower interest rates and a less volatile exchange rate. Then, hopefully, we could rebalance the economy away from debt and consumption to investment and earnings, particularly from exports and from investment in businesses overseas.

The Fabians get a mention too:

Selwyn Pellet, a leading high tech entrepreneur, Ganesh Nana, chief economist of Berl, the economic consultancy, and this columnist joined Walley in a three-city speaking tour on the subject earlier this year organised by the Fabian Society.

Given the new understanding growing overseas about the need to better manage fiscal misalignments in order to promote greater economic stability, plus the shift at home by the Reserve Bank and the Labour Party, monetary policy could become a defining issue at the next election. It deserves to be. It separates the architects of a more stable, higher value, investment and export-led economy from the defenders of the old boom-bust commodity economy.

You can read the full article here: