During the 1980s, the state banks of South Australia and Victoria responded to deregulation by plunging head-first into the heady waters of the markets. They made spectacular misjudgments and ended up bringing down their host state Labor governments.
The gung-ho atmosphere at the time is summed up in the comments of SA State Bank boss Timothy Marcus Clark, a scion of the NSW department store family and a star east coast recruit with a brief to proverbially shake up the joint. “The train is heading north. If you don’t like it you can get off,” he told one of his senior managers in 1988.
Andrew ClarkSenior writerAndrew Clark is a former editor of The Sun-Herald and Australian Business. He was a correspondent in Europe and North America, a political correspondent in Canberra and has been a journalist for more than 55 years. Email Andrew at aclark@afr.com.au
