Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Bryan Gould: A shortage of money is not a reason for not doing something

Bay of Plenty Times
18 Aug, 2019 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr. Photo / File

Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr. Photo / File

COMMENT:

Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus - and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus.

In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions to the Reserve Bank, many would no doubt see the Governor as the person best able to step on the accelerator; but Adrian Orr - having dropped interest rates to near zero - would almost certainly respond by saying that he has already deployed virtually all the weapons in his armoury.

He might also say that we task governments and finance ministers with managing the economy, and that it is their responsibility to step up to the plate - and on that point, he is surely right.

His responsibilities are met, under current arrangements, when he sets the Official Cash Rate; it is then up to Grant Robertson to decide what to do with the monetary situation thereby created.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The first and most obvious avenue that opens up, with the cost of borrowing at such a low level, is a review of the government's self-denying ordinance on increasing its borrowing.

It makes no sense for the government to be reluctant to borrow, when it can do so at virtually no cost, and could thereby provide a shot in the arm for a slowing economy - as well as proceeding with economically beneficial infrastructure projects.

Sadly, Labour governments have often been unwilling to borrow when it would make sense to do so, for fear of being accused of profligacy, but this is to allow their opponents to set the agenda.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Governor's whole point in bringing interest rates down, after all, is to encourage business to borrow and, by investing, thereby to stimulate production, employment and spending throughout the economy - so why shouldn't the government do what it is clearly hoped others will do?

Only those who are ideologically opposed to the government taking a role in the economy could object. Why is borrowing by business to be encouraged as being good for the economy, whereas borrowing by government must be avoided?

Discover more

Opinion: Missing Belle rallies community

21 Jul 09:00 PM

Bryan Gould: Leaders are a reflection of ourselves

28 Jul 04:27 PM
Opinion

Boris Johnson is no buffoon

04 Aug 05:00 PM
Environment

Climate change emergency now needs action plan

11 Aug 04:00 PM

We can go further. The case for the central bank making interest-free credit available for the purpose of publicly funding essential investment has often been recognised at other times and in other places as sensible and beneficial - and, in current circumstances, with interest charges virtually non-existent, it is surely a no-brainer.

It is hard to see what objection could be made. We are after all perfectly relaxed when the Reserve Bank presides over a monetary system in which the commercial banks are allowed to create almost all of our money out of thin air.

We applauded the world's monetary authorities when they practised "quantitative easing" - creating new money to strengthen the banks' balance sheets following the Global Financial Crisis.

The central truth about money - that we create it and that it is our servant, not our master - is well encapsulated in the famous statement by John Maynard Keynes that "whilst there may be intrinsic reasons for the scarcity of land, there are no intrinsic reasons for the scarcity of capital".

What Keynes is saying here is that we - that is, as a country or as a society - can do whatever we have the physical capacity to do and need not be inhibited by a lack of money because, if we are short of the money we need, we can create it - that a shortage of money is, for a sovereign country, never a reason for not doing something.

Many other countries around the world have followed this insight - not least, today, Japan and China - but, at various other times, countries like the pre-war United States re-arming under Franklin Roosevelt, and depression-ridden New Zealand under Michael Joseph Savage, when we built thousands of state houses and brought the Great Depression to an end in the 1930s.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

When state-controlled Chinese interests buy up New Zealand enterprises, like Westland Milk Products, they pay for them using credit supplied to them cost-free by the Chinese central bank.

We are too foolish and timid to use the same technique in order to protect our essential interests from foreign takeover - or just to get our economy moving again.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Bid to reopen bar closed for months divides community

18 Jun 09:33 PM
Premium
Opinion

Opinion: How Crusaders and Chiefs unearthed great talent from other regions

18 Jun 06:01 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Technology has come so far': Drones could be coming to farms and beaches near you

18 Jun 06:00 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bid to reopen bar closed for months divides community

Bid to reopen bar closed for months divides community

18 Jun 09:33 PM

The aspiring new owners say they have 30 years' experience in hospitality.

Premium
Opinion: How Crusaders and Chiefs unearthed great talent from other regions

Opinion: How Crusaders and Chiefs unearthed great talent from other regions

18 Jun 06:01 PM
'Technology has come so far': Drones could be coming to farms and beaches near you

'Technology has come so far': Drones could be coming to farms and beaches near you

18 Jun 06:00 PM
Police warn gangs after major drug operation

Police warn gangs after major drug operation

18 Jun 06:04 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP