The Reserve Bank of Australia has a problem. Well, two problems, really. The first is the garden variety energy cost/capacity constraints/surging AI investment inflationary pressures that central banks around the world are grappling with. The second, however, is a little more local.
From New York to Tokyo via Frankfurt (I can get you there Lufthansa business class for a smidge over €9,000 if you can be flexible on dates), monetary policymakers tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to public statements. And for good reason: these people literally determine the price of money.
When Andrew Bailey, Kevin Warsh or most glamorous of all (an ultra-low bar, verging on negative interest rates) Christine Lagarde speak, their words can affect everything from bond yields and currencies to whether it would be a good idea for you and me to pop to the shops and stock up on tinned goods.
At the same time, Australians are known for their idiosyncratic take on the English language: the liberal use of swear words, determined informality and abbreviations. So, in the arvo, Albo will put on his sunnies and fire up the barbie, mozzies be damned. And this can make for some interesting moments.
“Mate, the cenko reckons inflation's still too high.”
“What? The interest raties are already killing me.”
[Yes, I’ve resorted to cliché about Australians and god knows we’ve been here before, but they can’t hurt me anymore.]
Can I borrow a feeling?
Earlier this week, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Andrew Hauser, went on television and got a little impassioned. Speaking to the ABC, he said that people were “furious” about persistent inflation, calling it the “one big problem”. And he did so with a fair amount of gusto and gesticulation.
Now, an important caveat which is annoying for the purposes of today’s newsletter but such is my Socratic dedication to truth-telling: Hauser is in fact not Australian. Like seemingly everyone on Manly Beach (the Irish diaspora, for its part, seems to have adopted Coogee), he is British and a one-time Bank of England lifer.
But clearly, the bloke’s lived in Australia long enough to have picked up some of the cultural cues.