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The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree to which central bank policy errors made the credit crisis inevitable.

The paper did this by first observing the increasing tolerance shown by policymakers over time towards major structural imbalances. It then discussed three distinct behaviours or policy errors, describing their form and impact.

The first error is to hold short‐term interest rates at excessively low levels for sustained periods of time. The second is the unintended consequence of long‐term borrowing costs being kept artificially low as current account surplus countries purchased dollar‐denominated bonds with their surplus funds. The final error related to the skewed regulatory incentives which heavily favoured debt finance over equity funding, thereby encouraging excessive leverage. The paper concludes that central bank behaviour does indeed make a credit crisis inevitable, although clearly the central banks cannot be held directly responsible for policy errors outside of their remit. Nevertheless, where central banks combined a regulatory role with the conduct of monetary policy, they clearly should have been more pro‐active in their oversight of the commercial banks.

The implications of the findings are serious inasmuch as there is little evidence that senior central bankers have altered their behaviour as a result of the crisis. There remains an elevated tolerance of structural imbalances and there has been no acknowledgement by central bank heads of their culpability, despite more junior central bankers being increasingly vocal on the subject. Clearly commercial bankers played an important part in the crisis, but the paper questions how realistic it is to expect them to modify their behaviour without suitable regulatory incentives.

The paper adds insight into the credit crisis and the role of the behaviour of central banks.

Recent reforms to higher education systems in many OECD countries have focused on making universities more effective organisations in competing for resources and reputations. This has often involved increasing their internal cohesion and external autonomy from the state to make them more similar to private companies. However, pre-reform universities differed so greatly in their governance and capabilities that the impact of institutional changes has varied considerably between three ideal types: Hollow, State-chartered, and Autarkic. Furthermore, the combination of: (a) the inherent uncertainty of scientific research undertaken for publication, (b) limited managerial control over work processes and reputations, and (c) the contradictory effects of some funding and governance changes has greatly restricted the ability of universities to function as authoritatively integrated organisations capable of developing distinctive competitive competences.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

Environmental degradation, economic and political threats along with ideological extremism necessitate a global redirection toward sustainability and well-being. Since the survival of all species (humans, animals, and plants) is wholly dependent on a healthy planet, urgent action at the highest levels to address large-scale interconnected problems is needed to counter the thinking that perpetuates the “folly of a limitless world.” Paralleling critical societal roles played by universities – ancient, medieval, and modern – throughout the millennia, this chapter calls for all universities and higher education institutions (HEIs) generally – estimated at over 28,000 – to take a lead together in tackling the pressing complex and intractable challenges that face us. There are about 250 million students in tertiary education worldwide rising to about 600 million by 2040. Time is not on our side. While much of the groundwork has been done by the United Nations (UN) and civil society, concerns remain over the variable support given to the UN-2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in light of the negative impact of global biodiversity loss on achieving the UN-2030 SDGs. Ten propositions for global sustainability, ranging from adopting the SDGs at national and local levels to ensuring peaceful uses of technology and UN reforms in line with global socioeconomic shifts, are provided for consideration by decisionmakers. Proposition #7 calls for the unifying One Health & Well-Being (OHWB) concept to become the cornerstone of our educational systems as well as societal institutions and to underpin the UN-2030 SDGs. Recognizing the need to change our worldview (belief systems) from human-centrism to eco-centrism, and re-building of trust in our institutions, the chapter argues for the re-conceptualization of the university/higher education purpose and scope focusing on the development of an interconnected ecological knowledge system with a concern for the whole Earth – and beyond. The 2019 novel coronavirus has made clear that the challenges facing our world cannot be solved by individual nations alone and that there is an urgency to committing to shared global values that reflect the OHWB concept and approach. By drawing on our collective experience and expertise informed by the UN-2030 SDGs, we will be in a much stronger position to shape and strengthen multilateral strategies to achieve the UN-2030 Transformative Vision – “ending poverty, hunger, inequality and protecting the Earth’s natural resources,” and thereby helping “to save the world from itself.”

THE parliamentary White Paper issued on May 2nd by the Minister of Local Government has not yet been debated by the House. It may have repercussions on public library control, although specific proposals on most of the matters involved, including this, have Still to be made. Our readers will know that its purport is to intensify the local side of local government; that is, to take certain powers that are exclusively the business of county councils and to place them in the hands of the non‐county borough, urban district, and other councils. Public libraries are to be considered by a committee to be appointed; they are probably unique in that they are a nationally universal service, or almost that, which has no specified Ministerial department concerned in their direction except in a few matters. A number of questions are therefore left in the air ; for example, the future of the county library system would differ considerably from the present set‐up if every local authority became independent in library matters. Complete independence would mean a locally‐raised and controlled rate, not one raised locally to the amount prescribed for county purposes by the county. Such independence is probably not expected as it would seem that the county is to exercise supervision; and those who are supervised can rarely be free agents, if ever. The Committee, if and when formed, might have many matters to debate, such as the desirability of an adequate local Standard of service which conformed to a reasonable national level, in book provision, the training and payment of librarians—the latter in scandalous need of settlement as advertisements of posts every week demonstrate—and in satisfactory accommodation. With these matters the whole national service should be considered ; the relations of the regional systems and their solvency and their workings with the National Central Library and, when founded, the National Science and Technology Library. Moreover, the interrelations of public libraries with the libraries of Schools, Colleges of all kinds, including Technical Colleges and the accessibility and liaison of all state libraries and others receiving public money with the whole system should be surveyed. Thus it might seem that a unique opportunity for great advance may be offered. On the other hand, unless those who know have access to and are heard by the prospective committee, many things that bitter experience shows to be evil may be done and what is almost as bad, many things may be left undone which ought to be done. We are sure the Library Association will be vigilant.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the circumstances that gave rise to an adverse audit opinion by a New Zealand (Christchurch) accounting firm, Hicks and Ainger, on the annual financial report of the local firm, T.J. Edmonds Ltd, in 1976. In so doing, this study revealed not only previously undocumented issues surrounding major asset purchases but also the impact of key personalities before and after the adverse opinion decision.

The study is located within the Cultural Theory of History, to theorize the narratives within the wider contextual perspective. The issues surrounding the use of memory from such interviews are also considered. The key material offered in this study is sourced from a 2015 interview with the two key audit partners in this audit engagement.

The accounting standard on depreciation at that time, SSAP 3, had not been applied properly to the accounting treatment of four helicopters for wild deer operations, purchased a week before balance date. Neither the artificial suppression of profits by this purchase decision and accounting choice nor the fall in profits nor the adverse opinion, influenced share prices or shareholder perceptions long term.

The significance of this project is that it informs the appreciation of the importance of contextual understanding of a singular adverse audit opinion.