Focus on spirit of bank's charter  -  DailyTelegraph  -  February 15, 2012

THE statement itself is definitely clear.
According to the Reserve Bank its charter, carried on its website, says it is required to "ensure that the monetary and banking policy of the Bank is directed to the greatest advantage of the people of Australia".

Moreover, in seeking this advantage, the charter requires the bank to pursue "the stability of the currency of Australia; the maintenance of full employment in Australia; and the economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia". This is all part of the Reserve Bank Act 1959.

With unemployment in certain sectors - notably banking - now on the increase, the element of the bank's charter that calls on it to maintain full employment is coming in for understandable attention. The bank has at its disposal one blunt instrument: interest rates.

As The Daily Telegraph reports, economist William Mitchell, of the University of Newcastle, believes that instrument is not being used in the correct way.

One difficulty for the bank is that its aims aren't always achievable in an employment market that is not centrally controlled. Despite the charter, it is not the Reserve Bank's job to find jobs.

At the same time, the bank clearly has a massive influence on economic circumstances. As we've seen in recent years, even small rate shifts can save small businesses or send them broke.

That line about full employment is worth further focus by the bank. Some aims, although impossible in a practical sense, are rewarding in and of themselves.

FAIR go. The investigation into Dobell MP, Craig Thomson's, credit card use during his previous career as a union leader is now about to enter its third year.

And still - despite all the major players in the investigation still being alive and an abundance of apparent evidence - we are seemingly no closer to a resolution than we were in early 2009.

As today's The Daily Telegraph points out, numerous more complicated global events have been wrapped up in less time than it is taking to sort out the riddle of the unionist, the credit cards and the hookers.

In the time since the investigation commenced, Australia's Prime Minister has changed, NSW ended the Labor era and we've switched to a new Australian cricket captain. Overseas, troops are leaving Iraq and Arab nations are rising up against dictators. Industries and national economies throughout Europe teeter on the very brink of collapse.

Everywhere on earth there is constant, roiling change - everywhere except for the Thomson investigation, which is the same now as it ever was.

It's almost calming, in a way. Then you read that this investigation has cost $1 million.