The Australian economy The external environment certainly poses some big, and very immediate, challenges for an Australian economy which has experienced a long expansion and largely used up its reserves of spare capacity. The forces at work from abroad pull in different directions, to an extent seen on few occasions in the past.
Standardized approach in the United States As a final point, I would like to mention that U.S. agencies plan, fairly soon, to publish for public comment a set of proposed rules that would provide an optional capital framework –  2  Basel Committee on Banking Supervision announcement on strengthening the banking system, http://www.bis.org/press/p080416.htm.