Event: Is Monetary Policy Now Ineffective?
Central banks have engaged in expansionary policy for many years now, yet inflation remains low. Why has this happened? Is monetary policy now ineffective, and if so, can anything be done to get inflation up again? Join a panel discussion with Reserve Bank of Australia Board member and Lowy Institute Non-Resident Fellow John Edwards, Nicki Hutley, Director at Urbis Consulting, and Edward Nelson, Professor at the University of Sydney, for a conversation moderated by Lowy’s Director of the International Economics Program, Leon Berkelmans.
John Edwards is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. He is an Adjunct Professor with the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University, and a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia. He was formerly a Director for Economic Planning and Development for the Economic Development Board of the Kingdom of Bahrain and was Chief Economist for Australia and New Zealand for the global financial group, HSBC. From 1991 to 1994 John was principal economic adviser to Treasurer and then Prime Minister, Paul Keating.
Nicki Hutley is Director and Chief Economist at Urbis Consulting and has more than 25 years of economic, financial market and public policy experience. Prior to joining Urbis, Nicki was employed at KPMG as a Director to head KPMG’s NSW Economics practice where she led a team tasked with providing economic advice to public and private sector clients across a broad spectrum of policy issues.
Edward Nelson is Professor of Economics at the University of Sydney, having previously worked at the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and the Bank of England. His main research interests are in macroeconomics and monetary economics. He has published extensively on macroeconomic and monetary policy developments in advanced economies during the 1970s and 1980’s , when concerns about the effectiveness of monetary policy in reducing inflation were pervasive He is currently writing a book on Milton Friedman.
