Mike's Minute: Should Anna Breman be in trouble?

Of all the nutty stuff Trump is up to, the most egregious is the DOJ-Jerome Powell investigation. 

Powell —I have not one shadow of doubt— makes, along with his board members, decisions based on traditional economic or monetary thinking. 

Trump does not. 

Of course you can debate, as we have in this country, whether a governor or chair of a central bank is doing the right thing or a good thing. But what you don’t do is weaponize the law to hunt him down. 

A central bank’s independence is the cornerstone of how a lot of the world’s economy works. It matters. 

Which is why so many central bank chiefs came out in defence of Powell — one of which was our newly minted Reserve Bank Governor, Dr Anna Breman. 

She is now, it seems, in trouble for doing so. Winston Peters I didn’t take that seriously, but Nicola Willis I do. And together I most certainly do. Both have now spoken out against her move. Willis says she should have taken advice. 

Breman says she didn’t want to wake Willis at 3 in the morning. That worries me. I have woken the boss here at 3 in the morning because my computer password didn’t work. I would have no hesitation ringing Willis at a similar time. I worry about her weakness. 

But more importantly — advice on what? Breman is independent. The irony is that the entire debate around Powell is about independence and the defence of it. Can Breman now only be independent if the government says so? And if that’s the case, how far removed from the Trump view of the world are Peters and Willis? 

Are Willis and Peters scared of America and the White House? Would the advice have been: “Look, obviously you are independent, but please keep in mind we are scared witless of the nut job in Washington, so anything you can do to stop things getting messy would be appreciated”? 

Or —if we are universally agreed Breman should have taken advice— is she in fact a loose unit? Have we hired the wrong person? A person who has put her foot in it having only been in the job 15 minutes? 

So which is it? She is independent, and good on her? Or she is a puppet of government and she’s trouble waiting to happen? 

Answers please. 

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