You Bloody Muppet

Interest rates?? It takes interest rates for him to finally apologise for something??

Prime Minister John Howard says he is sorry about the interest rate rise. Official interest rates rose to their highest level in 10 years yesterday to 6.5 per cent. Mr Howard has told Macquarie Radio he has taken a hammering about the Reserve Bank decision this morning.

"Sure, we've had an interest rate rise and I'm sorry about that - I regret it," he said. "I didn't want an interest rate rise. But one has come about because the Reserve Bank, in its independent judgement, has made the call that the economy is so strong the best thing in the long-term interest of the economy is to adjust interest rates."

I can’t really say I’m surprised. After all, it was pretty much the only issue the Liberals ran on during the last election.

Now, my understanding of international finance is laughable at best, but I get the feeling that there’s only so much you can do to make sure interest rates stay low. It seems like making a promise to keep the flood waters at bay. You can do it for a while, but if that water wants to come crashing down on you, it’s going to do it.

So all the noise the Coalition has made about interest rates and their ability to master them is now finally coming back to bite them on the arse, and at the worst possible time for it to do so. There’s a certain degree of grim satisfaction in that, I think.

But still, finance is the one thing he’ll make apologies for. How pathetically characteristic.