Saul Eslake

Saul Eslake is one of Australia’s best-known economic analysts and commentators, mainly from his work as Chief Economist of McIntosh Securities, the ANZ Bank and the Australian arm of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. One of the things that’s always distinguished Saul from other people in similar positions is his willingness to write and talk about more than just what the Reserve Bank will do next month, what next week’s unemployment figure will be, or whether the A$ is going to go up or down next year. He delves into the politics behind major economic policy decisions; he looks at the social and regional dimensions of economic trends; and he considers global as well as national or local economic trends. He’s more familiar with Asia, and with New Zealand, than most Australian economists – and he makes extensive use of his wide global networks. And he writes, and speaks, with a sense of humour that sometimes gets him into trouble with powerful people: but he doesn’t care about that.