Mike's Minute: Adrian Orr leaving is excellent

The fact Adrian Orr is leaving is excellent. 

It shows a level of accountability and responsibility for what has been a ruinous period for the New Zealand economy. 

The receipts and reviews are in, and the story is stark. 

We have been hit harder than any other country in the OECD. 

We had three recessions while most countries, as a result of the Covid plan, had none. 

Grant Robertson carries some blame for encouraging and endorsing Orr but, more dangerously, reappointing him so close to the last election. 

The new Government could have/should have sacked Orr, although that would have set a fairly disturbing precedent given the Governor is supposed to be neutral. 

Orr made the Governor's job a household fascination. Yes, Don Brash got well known, but really only when he went political. The others came and went. 

I might have interviewed Allan Bollard a couple of times. Before Spencer Russell, who you also never heard of, the job was called the Chief Cashier. Russell was your first Governor. 

Anyway, the upside of Covid and Orr was we at last took an interest. We had a view, and we know about cash rates and inflation and quantitative easing. 

But we learned the hard way. We paid an enormous price and are in fact still paying the price. 

Orr has years to run on his contract and clearly the pressure was on. The Government is currently negotiating a budget with the bank, and I assume they were twisting arms, hard, behind the scenes. 

By the way, the bank staffing numbers have ballooned. 

Orr has come across as haughty and arrogant, unable to really express any level of regret, if in fact he has any, for all the damage he has done. 

Giving banks money for free and not putting restrictions of where that money went was the height of incompetency. 

Still handing out money when we knew a lot of what we thought would happen during Covid didn’t, was a scandal. 

The onerous banking restrictions he placed on the retailers with his “just in case” thinking was needlessly restrictive. 

The conclusion has to be that although everyone flew blind during Covid, no one flew more blind than us. 

And no one was led by a more ideologically driven, fiscal ransacker than Adrian Orr. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The fact Adrianora's leaving is of course excellent. It shows
a level of accountability and responsibility for what has been
a ruinous period for the New Zealand economy. The receipts
and reviews are in the story. As stark, we've been
hit harder than any other country in the OECD. We
had three recessions. Most countries, as a result of their
COVID plan had none. Grant Robinson carry some of the blame,

(00:20):
of course, he does one encouraging and endorsing Or, but
two more dangerously reappointing him so close to the last election.
The new government could have should have sacked Or, although
that would have said a fairly disturbing precedent given the
governor supposed to be neutral. Or made the governor's job
though a household fascination. Yes, Don Brash got well known,
but really only when he went political. The others came

(00:41):
and went I mean Alan Bollard. I might have interviewed
him a couple of times over the year. Spencer Russell.
In fact, before Spencer Russell, who you also have never
heard of, the job is called the chief cashier. Russell
was your first governor. Anyway, The upside of COVID, and
are was we at last took an interest, didn't we?
We had a view, We knew about cash rates and
inflation and quantity tait of easing, but we learned the

(01:01):
hard way. We paid an enormous price. In fact, we
was still paying the price. Or has years to run
on his contract, and clearly the pressure was on the
government's currently negotiating a budget with the bank, and I
assume they were twisting arms hard behind the scenes. The
bank staffing numbers, by the way, a balloon Or has
come across, of course, as haughty and arrogant, unable to
really express any level of regret if in fact he

(01:23):
has any at all for the damage he's done. Giving
banks money for free and not putting restrictions on where
that money went was the height of incompetency. Still handing
up money when we all knew that a lot of
what we thought would happen during COVID didn't. That was
a scandal. The onerous banking restrictions he placed on the
retailers with his just in case thinking was needlessly restrictive.
The conclusion has to be that although everyone flew blind

(01:45):
during COVID, no one flew more blind than us, and
no one was led by a more ideologically driven fiscal
ransacker than Adrian or For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
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