"Of course this did not prevent "the recession we had to have " and the historically high interest rates leading intthit."
As the float exchange rate mechanism did not prevent the excesses of the 80's and the subsequent fall in asset prices that lead to the 1990-1991 recession, I presume by the tone of the conversation that one can infer that a fixed exchange rate regime would have prevented it. That is a completely new perspective capable making its authors candidates for the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics.
I also note that for some posters here "Australia does not produce anything, it is just a hole in the ground" If so, then why do these same people want Australia to have complete ownership of that hole in the ground? Afterall nothing comes out of it.
Finally, I thought that the partial ownership of some of our main financial institutions that were once in public hands by foreigners was a product of our love affair with privatization, financial deregulation and the free movement of financial capital. But now I realize that I was wrong, as that too was a product of the adoption of a float exchange regime for the Aussie dollar.
