I have two AFR stories--one print and one online--today. The first in print is called the "price of bank safety". You can read it here. It opens as follows:
Investors expect a trade-off between risk and return, but in Australian banking this relationship is inverted – banks with the lowest risks provide the highest returns. Taxpayer subsidies probably explain why.
The second is on the shock appointment of the Canadian central banking boss as Bank of England governor. You can read it here. I also discuss possible replacements for Glenn Stevens at the RBA and John Laker at APRA:
The two most obvious and apolitical successors to Stevens and Laker are, respectively, the RBA’s Dr Phillip Lowe and Dr Guy Debelle. Both have PhDs from MIT and are experts in monetary policy and financial stability. Dr Lowe is currently deputy governor and widely considered a natural replacement to Stevens. Dr Debelle runs the RBA’s financial markets division and led the central bank’s efforts to keep banks solvent during the global credit crisis.
