Early warning systems – can more be done to avert economic and financial crisis?

Australia can be pleased with the performance of the economy and financial system during the GFC. Certainly compared to the turmoil in the northern hemisphere, we weathered the storm relatively unscathed. And to be frank there was probably equal weight of good management as well as good luck that helped Australia through.

Nevertheless, I believe it’s important we continue to improve the systems that keep Australia strong. We need to think and explore further improvements to our policy settings, regulatory structures and overall corporate governance to ensure we stay ahead of the game.

At the Institute, our mandate is to serve the public interest - influencing public policy, contributing to and affecting the changes emanating from Canberra, the legislation that will ultimately impact you – the taxpayer.

In keeping with our mandate, the Institute recently released a thought leadership paper entitled Early warning systems – can more be done to avert economic and financial crisis? In collaboration with Access Economics, the paper aims to stimulate thinking and discussions to identify improvements in our macro- and micro economies.

I am very pleased with how this paper has been received since it was released. It appears to have ‘hit the mark’ with our members, regulators and policy makers, both locally and internationally.

Please find some time to consider the paper and let me know whether you think it is tackling the right issues. Also I would really welcome your thoughts and comments about other topics that we should be pursuing with our broader business, economic focus.