Out with the old, in with the same

The mainstream media and mainstream financial market analysts are just about drooling over new Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus’ performance at her first interest rate policy announcement on Tuesday. 

The narrative in the media shows just how hoodwinked everyone is regarding the role and purpose of a central bank.  You can put the best and the brightest up there, but as long as they are trapped in the wrong mode of thinking, you’re just going to get more of the same old fraud. 

The supposed pundits in the press are lauding her poise and balance, her even-handedness and the fact that she was able to reassure investors that the Bank is ‘under a steady hand’. 

Don’t get me wrong, in a system of fraudulent monopolistic paper currency, I’ll take all the monetary policy stability Marcus can give, and the fact that she at least didn’t cut the repo rate as many have foolishly been calling for is cause for some relief. 

Also, to be fair, Marcus is a whole lot more articulate than her predecessor Tito Mboweni, and on Tuesday showed she is able to answer tough questions with a far greater degree of balance, confidence and elaboration than Mboweni was ever able to.  In Mboweni’s defence, Marcus’ mother tongue is English, his is not, but this does not excuse his dithering, obstructionist, and often opaque style in addressing legitimate questions regarding the dealings and workings of the central bank in general and the monetary policy committee (MPC) in particular. 

So, at a very superficial level, and in relation to a sub-par former Governor, Marcus stood out on Tuesday.  

But this is about where it ends.  

She remains deeply set within the consensus view of monetary policy and as a result Human Action does not have any confidence that she will take the necessary steps to protect the integrity and purchasing power of the currency. 

The truth is that while Marcus will be able to affect some cosmetic changes at the SARB, the underlying fraud of a money-printing, inflation-creating central bank is not going to change any time soon.  The central bank’s ability to monopolise money creation, force us to use the rand as the only legal tender, and stifle freedom, will remain enshrined in our constitutional-legal framework until a genuine revolution of ideas takes place.  Unfortunately that still seems a long way off.

Until then, the more things change the more they stay the same…