The Global Financial Crisis Of 2007 / 08

The Australian economy marks external stability as an important objective because it can influence other important aims such as economic growth, unemployment and inflation. External stability is the concept of sustaining a nation’s external accounts so that in the future, it is able to service its foreign liabilities and can avoid currency volatility. When looking at external stability, we must examine Australia’s balance of payments, which records all economic transactions between Australia and the rest of the world. Australia’s balance of payments has two components, which is the current account and the capital and financial account. The current account measures the receipts and payments for trade in goods and services, transfer payments and income flows, while the capital and financial account shows international borrowing, lending, purchasing and sales of assets.

The Labor Government have had a major impact on the Australian Economy, which has made it quite difficult for the Coalition to inherit. Joe Hockey stated that “Sixteen years of deficits without a recession, without any significant

This has been the result of inflationary pressures due to excessive consumer demand, and a world increase in oil prices, the RBA’s primary objective is to contain inflation at 2-3% whilst also achieving sustainable growth. The current increases in interest rates will result in lower aggregate demand as consumers have less disposable income. This results in reductions in inflationary expectations, and a decrease in the demand for imports. Furthermore higher rates of interest will encourage overseas investment into Australia, thus resulting in an increase in the demand for the Australian dollar. An increase in the demand for the AU$, and a decrease in its supply due to less import expenditure will result in an appreciation of the AU$ in forex markets. Overall this results in depressed economic activity and lower levels of growth. However the RBA has been able to increase interest rates in order to contain inflation while maintaining economic growth. This is because the global economy has continued to grow at record pace, with strong growth in the US and China, and the recovery of Japan and Europe. Consequently demand for Australian exports has remained high, thus creating opportunities for increased production and subsequent economic

The figure obviously had not return to pre-crisis level. Moreover, recent commodity prices had fallen significantly which will affect Australia’s short and long term economy.

Australia has a long history of large and persistent current account deficits. During the 1960s the current account deficit averaged the equivalent of 2 per cent of gross domestic product. The CAD rose considerably, due to the floating of the Australian dollar and the opening of the capital account in 1980s, and by 1990s CAD has sustained around an average of about 4.5 per cent of GDP. However, in recent years the deficit has been falling and in 2011 it was just 2.25 per cent.

This report will show an overview of the current state of the Australian economy and its management by the Federal government through examining economic indicators such as economic growth (GDP), unemployment, inflation and trade.

Through economic growth the government aims to increased Australia’s standard of living and create the opportunity for increased investment in infrastructure and public services such as education and health. Through aiming to achieve external stability Australia aims to meet its long-term financial obligations to foreign countries so that future goals like higher growth and lower inflation are not hindered. Improving external stability is beneficial to the economy as it leads to reduce vulnerability to opposing developments in the global financial markets. The government objective of full employment involves the aim that the economy is at the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. The economy benefits from achieving full employment and reducing unemployment as the economy’s capacity to produce is maximised, thus maximising Australia’s living standards. The government aims to create a fairer distribution of income and wealth. The government does not aim to remove all of the inequalities between individuals, as they recognise that free

The financial crisis that happened during 2007-09 was considered the worst financial crisis in the world since the great depression in the 1930s. It leads to a series of banking failures and also prolonged recession, which have affected millions of Americans and paralyzed the whole financial system. Although it was happened a long time ago, the side effects are still having implications for the economy now. This has become an enormously common topic among economists, hence it plays an extremely important role in the economy. There are many questions that were asked about the financial crisis, one of the most common question that dragged attention was ’’How did the government (Federal Reserve) contributed to the financial crisis?’’

Achieving external stability is an important objective of economic policy, achieving this stability ensures that imbalances in Australia’s economic relationships with other economies do not hinder achieving domestic economic policy goals such as lower rate of unemployment, higher rate of growth and lower inflation. There are three main factors that effect external stability the deficit on the current account (CAD), net foreign liabilities and the Australian dollar. Australia’s experienced times when overseas investors decided that the economy’s external position was unstable, and when investors like such decide to withdraw their

Booms, busts, recessions, and growth; all of the preceding terms are characteristics of a typical market economy. There are times when an economy can flourish spectacularly and there are times when it can fail miserably. Consequently, it is the responsibility of a nation’s central bank to manage these fluctuations through conducting effective monetary policy. The following paper will assume the perspective of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and critically analyze the past, present, and future of the Australian economy while considering specific sectors.

Analyse the causes of unemployment, its effects on the Australian economy and how they are addressed through use of macroeconomic policies.

During the lead up to the financial crisis of 2007-08, a term was coined to describe what was happening in the financial markets. The term was: Shadow Banking System. The creation of the term was attributed to economist and money manager, Paul McCulley, who described it as a large segment of financial intermediation that is routed outside the balance sheets of regulated commercial banks and other depository institutions (St. Louis Fed). In simpler terms, institutions that are in the shadow banking system are not regulated like commercial banks, and carry more risk due to their investments. Examples of shadow banking institutions are money market funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc. During the early 1990s, most American citizens didn’t know or never heard of money market funds or mutual funds; typically, the only people who knew of the “shadow banking system” were most likely senior officers at the big banks or individuals who were experts in the financial markets. However, that all changed. At the turn of the century, the shadow banking system started to gain steam and was growing at a faster rate than traditional banks. At the peak of its growth, right before the financial crisis, the shadow banking system, in terms of liabilities, was about 1.5-2 times larger than traditional banks (St. Louis Fed).

The second key national interest of Australia is the economy. Australia’s capital, jobs, standards of living, technological innovations and social advances rely substantially on exports and commodity values within Southeast Asia and the Pacific (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2016a). The stability of South East Asia and the Oceania

A statement about the main economic problems currently in the Australian economy or problems it may face in the future.

In the past quarter the unemployment rate in South Australia has remained steady at 5.6% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009) but this figure is volatile and may increase next month. The youth unemployment rate, however, in South Australia remains at 21.9% with the Western and Northern suburbs having significantly higher