New RBA Governor Phil Lowe makes a good start today in his first speech:

Remarks to the Asian Development Bank – Institute of Global Finance International Conference

I would like to welcome you all to Sydney to this important conference. It is fantastic to see the Asian Development Bank working so closely with an Australian university, the Institute of Global Finance at the University of New South Wales. It is also very pleasing to see that this collaboration is occurring in this beautiful city. I am sure that you will find this conference stimulating and that you will receive warm hospitality in our city.

The title of this conference is long. Ten words: ‘Financial Cycles, Systemic Risk, Interconnectedness, and Policy Options for Resilience’. It is also challenging. I say this because just below the surface of these 10 words lies a host of complex and difficult issues. The proper functioning of our modern economies depends on us understanding and addressing these issues as best we can. If we get things wrong here, the outcomes can be really bad: our economies will be more volatile, job security will be less and people’s hard-earned savings will be at greater risk. The global financial crisis was a powerful reminder of this. So the issues that we will discuss at this conference really matter.