The point of my visits was to find out what was going on in the US economy because, for a long time, this had a major bearing on the Australian economy. Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, developments in the Australian economy showed a close correlation with those in the US economy.
It was particularly striking that the recessions of the early 1970s, early 1980s and early 1990s were highly synchronised between the two countries and had many similarities in their nature and origins. As a result, it was common in the 1980s and 1990s to hear the phrase “when the US sneezes, Australia catches a cold”.