Special Internal Colloquium

The Financial Crisis: Where are we at and where to now?

A global financial crisis of historical significance has provided a "live laboratory" opportunity for members of the Faculty of Business and Economics to learn and contribute to the discussions and policy inputs that are taking place.

Held on Thursday 6th November at the Caulfield Campus, the Colloquium was run in a similar manner to the 'Geoffrey Robertson Hypothetical' format.  Mr John Vaz, who teaches Corporate Finance in the Faculty of Business and Economics MBA program, co-ordinated the event and opened the Colloquium with a presentation of the current status and some trend information as well as other facts and figures to help understand the crisis.  John also provided a brief explanation of various derivative financial instruments such as Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs) and Credit Default Swaps (CDSs), which are central to the current crisis.

Selective hypothetical propositions were made to a panel consisting of academic staff who were asked to express their views.  The panel consisted of Professor Edwin Maberly, Chair in Finance, Jakob Madsen, Professor of Economics, Ms Kathy Avram, Senior Lecturer in Banking and Finance and Dr Kym Brown, lecturer in Banking and Finance.

The Colloquium was well attended by staff, professional and academic, as well as PhD and honours students who had the opportunity to make a contribution by expressing their views and asking questions to add to the common understanding. The feedback from attendees of the Colloquium was extremely positive as a segue into collaborative research.

Future such events are envisaged in the New Year to focus on particular areas such as regulation, banking and investment as the development of the crisis continues.