This seems to me to be correct, but to emphasise the wrong issue: we respond to crashes (and crises) by putting in place rules, regulations and procedures to diminish the chance of a recurrence, and to be better prepared should that eventuality arrive. Australia cannot, as a medium-sized player on the international stage, hope to dominate the outcomes or achieve all its objectives.
But we need to be at the table, to speak up, and to work actively for a better set of international rules, not only for the set of issues encompassed by the international financial architecture, but for the entire gamut of the globalisation process. 5  Although the UN is attempting to coordinate international patents - see The Economist (2000b, p 99).