On March 5, 2025, Adrian Orr, Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, announced his abrupt resignation, cutting short a second five-year term that should have carried him to 2028. No reason was given—just a quiet nod to inflation tamed and a financial system still standing after years of turbulence. No mention of the worst recession 1991 was helped create.
His departure, effective March 31, isn’t just a personal pivot. It’s a flare in the dusk, potentially signaling a deeper shift—one tied to the echoes of Trump 2.0’s new America, and the relentless hum of technological change.
Background
Orr’s tenure began in 2018, and in March of 2020, like every central bank globally (nothing to see here), he slashed rates to near-zero during the COVID-19 crisis. Along came the cheap, and abundant money, all to help an economy sure to crash if not for their intervention. It started with asset prices first, then what we needed to live – inflation soared, then crashed, as he hiked rates to 5.5% by 2023, plunging the country into its worst downturn since 1991. Critics abound, blaming him for overcooking the stimulus, then overcorrecting with austerity. Others saw a man wrestling with forces beyond his control: global supply chains snapping and labor in short supply.
Now, steeped in recession that won’t be named, a public grows ever more weary of these unelected hands shaping their lives.
Enter Donald Trump, re-elected in 2024, whose “America First” swagger mobilises the quiet majority, sick of money being spent on things they didn’t vote for. The common thread – people have had enough.
Then there’s the other shadow: technology.
The digital age isn’t creeping—it’s sprinting. Orr himself championed the RBNZ’s “Future of Money” initiatives, probing digital currencies and payment systems as blockchain and decentralized finance chip away at the monopoly of fiat cash.
Adrian Orr: If his exit’s not random—it’s a symptom. The ribbon of the free market, once a vibrant thread through New Zealand’s fields, is unwinding. Central banks, those “keepers of dust,” have long whispered our names with the confidence of printers and planners. But belief in their tokens—printed out of thin air, is fraying at the edges. Trump’s chaos amplifies the cracks, while technology offers a ladder out. It’s ironic Orr’s resignation occurred just before an RBNZ conference celebrating 35 years of inflation targeting.
What’s next?
The papal conclave will no doubt appoint another capable of similar stunts, but at some stage, and “End the Fed” moment could come for New Zealand. It’s a distant dream, perhaps, but one gaining whispers. Investments bloated by decades of cheap credit could falter if that dam breaks.
