In the early years of the Great Recession, I pointed to Australia as an example of enlightened monetary policy. It hadn’t had a recession in 20 years. NGDP grew at a 6.5% annual rate between 1996 and 2006, and then continued growing at a 6.5% annual rate from 2006 to 2012. Since then Australian NGDP growth has slowed substantially, for a variety of reasons: