Alan Kohler: RBA hasn’t broken its habit of making horribly wrong interest calls

The RBA never seems to learn from past failures, Alan Kohler writes. Photo: TND

The Reserve Bank of Ian (Macfarlane) made a mistake in 2000, raising the cash rate three times after the dot-com bubble burst in March of that year.

The last of these came in August, even though it was obvious by then that trouble was brewing. Five months later, the RBA had to hurriedly reverse course and start cutting again – by 1.25 per cent in three months, no less.