Strong resisted attempts to aim monetary policy at the stock market, arguing that raising interest rates sufficiently to slow the market would have 13 highly adverse effects on the rest of the economy. “Some of our critics damn us vigorously and constantly for not tackling stock speculations,” Strong wrote about the debate.
For the first nine months of 2009, the public sector issued a net R74, 5 billion, compared with net issuance of R800 million in the same period last year.