This article was delivered as the 2010 Shann Memorial Lecture at the University of Western Australia on 17 August 2010. It charts a brief history of the development of finance, before focusing on the regulatory response and issues arising from the financial turbulence of recent years.

This paper examines the experience of nine industrial countries with monetary targeting. The paper suggests that monetary targets were adopted as a tactical response to a particular economic situation, not as monetary rules. Other objectives were given precedence over targets when thought...

type="main" xml:id="ecor12107-abs-0001" <p>Low levels of non-default decision-making among superannuation members in Australia are assumed to be evidence of a lack of interest and capability. Using member records and survey data from a large Australian superannuation fund, we test the relationship...</p>

Surveys of Australian retirement savings funds verify that most international bond holdings, but not equity holdings, have been hedged for currency risk. We compare the mean-variance efficiency of this practice with two alternatives: a conventional forward hedge and a selective hedge triggered...

The new Simplified Superannuation regulations for Australian superannuation provide tax concessions to retirement income streams which comply with legislated minimum drawdown rules. We evaluate these new drawdown rules against four alternatives, including three formula-based 'rules of thumb'...