Ian Macfarlane quotes

If people can't abide by the confidentiality of the cabinet room, then they should leave the cabinet.
-- Ian Macfarlane

#People #Rooms #Cabinets

Most of us at the Reserve Bank come from a background in economics and hence have a predisposition in favour of free markets and a sceptical attitude towards intervention in those markets unless there is a clearly defined economic rationale for it.
-- Ian Macfarlane

#Attitude #Favour #Economics

For equity markets, the combination of low interest rates, strong economic growth and low inflation has proved very beneficial, with global share markets rising solidly in each of the past three years. This has been underpinned by strong growth in profits so that, notwithstanding the rise in share prices, P/E ratios have been declining on average.
-- Ian Macfarlane

#Strong #Past #Average

For years I have made the point that progress in winding back economic slack is made not by high growth in any individual year, but by maintaining an expansion over a sustained period.
-- Ian Macfarlane

#Years #Growth #Progress

Banks and other providers of credit to households have been competing vigorously to expand or protect their market share. In the process, lending standards have been progressively eroded so that lenders are now engaging in practices that would have been regarded as out of the question five or ten years ago.
-- Ian Macfarlane

#Years #Practice #Credit

A government cannot be expected to allow independence to its central bank unless that bank is also accountable to it and to the wider public. That is, the central bank must be able to be judged on whether or not it has achieved its agreed objective.
-- Ian Macfarlane

#Government #Independence #Able

When everyone feels that risks are at their minimum, over-confidence can take over and elementary precautions start to get watered down.
-- Ian Macfarlane

#Risk #Precaution #Over Confidence

There's the South Pole, said Christopher Robin, and I expect there's an East Pole and a West Pole, though people don't like talking about them.

I have known some quite good people who were unhappy, but never an interested person who was unhappy.

The reason that chefs become chefs is that they're not allowed into rooms with windows.

I am in awe of the things you've been put through and the fact you can still light up a room when you walk in. When I look at you I see life. I see joy. I see my future.

Are all Cabinets congeries of little autocrats with a super-autocrat presiding over them?

I say that to my colleagues, by the way, in the internal Cabinet meetings, I say, 'Look, I want to be very clear about what I want.' I just - I don't want a peace process, I want a peace result.

Maybe we are all cabinets of wonders.

Maybe we're all cabinets of wonders.

I am honored that they would include me in the Cabinet as a member and contributor.

In excluding me from the shadow cabinet, Margaret Thatcher has chosen what I believe to be the only wholly honest solution and one which I accept and welcome.