All that underscores the importance of a sound macroeconomic framework for fiscal and monetary policy, and of robust and well-managed banks. For us at the Reserve Bank, it also highlights the need for continual monitoring of the nature of the risks and the ways in which demand for finance, and the terms on which it is available, are changing.
I have not devoted any time today to the question of what more public policy could or should do about this picture. Those are issues for another day. BIS Review 6/2002  11