Ryan Bridge: The waiting game continues for the economy

Has Nicola Willis failed on growth in her year of growth?  So far, yes. We’ve gone nowhere in six months - Q2 basically wiped out Q1.  Should she resign? No. Why? Trump’s tariffs. Nobody saw them coming. Markets thought he was bluffing, a negotiation tactic. Until he wasn’t. Businesses and Mums and Dads sat on their cash to wait it out - a reasonable response to an uncertain future.  Should she borrow and spend more? She can’t. It’d be political sacrilege for a party elected to do the opposite.  Besides, she’s already borrowing Robertson-level cash. The interest tab’s nearing $10 billion and ratings agencies are watching closely.  The RBNZ printed money like it was going out of fashion, governments here and abroad overcooked the Covid response with border controls. The world ground to a halt. We artificially concocted an inflationary wildfire so hot the ambers burn close to central limits to this day.  As for those the calls from Douglas and Co. for Willis’ head on a stake, you’ve got to ask what exactly it is they want and what impact it would have had. Had she gone full Ruth Richardson in Budgets 1 and 2, getting the books in line sooner, that growth number we saw yesterday, the one that prompted the press release calling for a scalp, would have been a hell of a lot worse than 0.9%. So, the waiting game continues, which is cold comfort to many.  But the medicine for such a nasty illness was always going to be hard to swallow.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.