Ionce met with an eminent economist who worked closely with every prime minister and treasurer going back to Whitlam. My question was simple: who was the best and, more interestingly, who was the worst out of that long list of political leaders?

Rather than indulging my (sort of immature) question, he said something much more profound.

He said that the best political leaders are those who have a coherent, evidence-based framework in their head: they know how the economy works, they know what their objectives are, and they know how to achieve them.

If you think exports are good and imports are bad, I've got bad news for you: you don't have a coherent framework.

The same is true if you think deficits are bad and surpluses are good, that high interest rates are bad and low interest rates

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