The Monetary Policy Committee

The Reserve Bank seems actively hostile towards actual expertise in monetary policy. 

Dennis Wesselbaum and I polled NZ's macroeconomists about who should be appointed to the Monetary Policy Committee. The respondents said reappoint Bob Buckle. 13th down the queue was reappointing Peter Harris.

The Bank today announced the MPC.

Buckle has been reappointed. 

But so has Peter Harris.

Karen Silk has been appointed to a five-year term as an internal member of the Committee. She has a B.Comm in marketing and accounting. 

In the tagline on my Herald piece, I said I was unqualified to be on the MPC because I'm a microeconomist. But at least I got a full pass on my macro prelims two decades ago - which is an awful lot more than some of the folks on the committee. 

It'll be fun to see where this all leads.