NEIL MITCHELL: Overnight the world's banks got together and reduced interest rates which sort of followed Australia in a sense. I think it's almost unprecedented for them to do something like that. There was not brilliant reaction on the stock markets. Wall Street zig-zagged a bit and ended up down, however the action was taken and the reaction will continue for a few days I would think.
In the studio with me is the acting Treasurer at the moment, Lindsay Tanner, good morning.
LINDSAY TANNER: Morning, Neil.
NEIL MITCHELL: Do you agree this is sort of a white knuckle time for Australia?
LINDSAY TANNER: It's clearly a serious time. The impact of the international financial crisis is already having an effect in Australia but it's relatively modest compared with equivalent countries overseas.
Obviously we are keeping a very close eye on developments but the developments over the last few days are heartening because it shows that the major economies, the major governments are taking these things very seriously and taking decisive action to tackle them so I think Australians can take a lot of heart from those decisions.
NEIL MITCHELL: It's pretty much unprecedented, isn't it, for the world's banks to get together and do something like this?
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