The board of the RBA is predominately made up of people who were directors or chair persons of large corporations.There is only one woman on the board and a single Govt representive.The board over several yrs is determined by the treasurer of the day.

Wayne Swan has moved even further to make the RBA Board more independant of Govt influence.

All economists acknowledge that monetary policy of just increasing interest rates is a very blunt instrument which destroys both good and bad industry,but no attempt has been made to find obivious alternatives.There are other ways of selectively taking monoey from the economy rather than just punishing individuals who can least afford it.Nearly all of us pay into super,so why not take extra super from people's wages to slow the economy rather than giving it to greedy banks and the RBA?This money can be then directed into infrastructure projects to further enhance productivity.

The real bogey the RBA is trying to address is the balance of payments deficit.It is now $620 billion or nearly $60,000.00 for every working person.We have had a more aggressive tarrif reduction regieme than most and are now suffering the consequences.Surely it makes sense that every country like every household is allowed to balance imports with exports so we can offset higher interest rates.

Already the USA is in recession and we will follow suit if the RBA does not deviate from their singular obsession of just raising rates.

Arjay – Taking more out of your super is not an obvious alternative as you put it. Interest rates are going up because of inflation due to rising oil prices and the associated effects it has on industries such as transport who have to pay more for fuel. So they then pass on the cost to anybody who uses their services!

Interest rates are put up so people borrow less and thus spend less and thus reduce pressure on prices and inflation.

Taking money out of super will not do anything as far as I know! If you could expand on your revolutionary idea I would be very interested to hear it! There might even be a Nobel prize for economics in it for you.

Easytimes,I'm talking about putting more money into super.When the RBA takes money from the economy,most of it just ends up in limbo while a percentage goes to the Govt as dividend.Rather than increasing rates just increase the contribution to super by employees and have less of a rate increase.It has a two fold positive effect.It reduces inflation and increases future savings for investment like things for infrastructure.

In a previous post I've postulated that the same can be done with Govt surpluses from the mineral boom.Put the money into super for everyone so it cannot be spent immediately thus adding to inflation,but can be used for infrastructure bonds that people can cash in as they retire.

It won't happen because Govts and the Multi-Nationals are just too damn egocentic and greedy.

Another recession will see thousands of lives destroyed and incentive for the innovators to build businesses.It will take another 10 yrs for us to recover and in the meanwhile China will buy up our weakened enterprises.

please help...the current interest rate rises seem like bulldozing a house to save it from a bush fire. The economy is running two tiered so why not increase costs on mining and leave the rest of the economy alone. Unlike interest rates this will not put upward pressure on wages.
Another anti-inflation measure would be to stop using our very scarce resource (water) on rice & cotton, thus reducing the effect of the drought on food prices, perhaps free up more labour for the mining industry
Not an economics student, so be gentle on the answers

Economics= the justification for too little intelligence in chasing too much profit

i think economists are like the weatherman....accurate only when it's the bleeding obvious to everyone and useless otherwise