ABSTRACT
I am wondering what exactly they are thinking as I begin to describe the financial structure of the Australian economy. As a general rule, most people I speak to about such topics seem to lose interest very quickly, but this group is different. They seem interested in all the topics I am here to discuss including the relationship between the Central Bank and retail banks, merger activity, the role of non-banking institutions, and how the payments system works. My audience is made up of approximately fifty ex-combatants from the Bougainville/Papua New Guinea (PNG) civil war that lasted nearly ten years and cost 10,000 lives. Though Bougainville is culturally and geographically part of the Solomon Islands, it has been a province of PNG since independence. The conflict fractured one of the Pacific's most stable democracies and drew in the Australian military who assisted in a blockade of the Island, including the deployment of international mercenaries.
