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Ian Harper

University of Melbourne

What's Just and Prudent About Setting Interest Rates?

Preview ResponseVirtues1 min read

I very much enjoyed reading Jennifer’s Preview of The Virtues.

I related most directly to her discussion in the context of my work as a public policy economist.  Here I regularly bump up against the limits of purely technical analysis and reach for (primarily) the cardinal virtues in making a decision, for example, about the setting of interest rates or minimum wages.  It’s one thing to interpret the predictions/forecasts of formal models but quite another to discern what is just or prudent, let alone courageous! And, of course, the Christian virtues overarch my thinking as I pray about how best to love my neighbour in applying the technical discipline of economics to reaching virtuous, i.e., loving, hopeful and charitable, public policy decisions.

Virtues

Dialogue structure

  1. Theology Brief Preview1
  2. Preview Response31Current
  3. Theology Brief1
  4. Disciplinary Brief13
  5. Disciplinary Note3
  6. Theology Brief Postscript1