Many aspects of the college attendance decision are complex and hard to predict, especially for students from families without much experience with higher education. For example, research indicates that decisions about college attendance are highly correlated with an understanding of the future payoffs from attendance and particular majors.9 New York Fed research shows evidence of systematic underestimation of the average benefits—and overestimation of the costs—of a college education, with larger biases among lower-income and non-college households.10 Families may not realize that listed tuition prices may not be what a particular student actually pays. Moreover, misperceptions about the net return from a college degree can be consequential, influencing parents’ expectations and intentions for their children’s college attendance. Importantly, however, these expectations are not hardwired. Evidence from an information experiment indicates that students do respond to new information by revising their expectations and their education choices.11 This suggests that making information about higher education decisions more available to families—particularly those with less experience with higher education—is a promising way to expand economic mobility. I was fortunate as a child that I didn’t face this problem. Both my parents went to college and there was no doubt among us about the payoff from higher education. Another concern is the lack of college preparedness among new college entrants. Nearly seven out of 10 students entering public two-year institutions and four out of 10 students entering fouryear public institutions take remedial courses in college.12 Generally, these are courses they should have taken in high school.

The growth momentum is expected to pick up further after China’ s announcement to formalise the use of RMB in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2011. The upside is very significant as China’ s total FDI amounted to USD 116 billion in 2011, or RMB 750 billion equivalent. Besides facilitating the rapid development of the sukuk and dim sum bond markets, more importantly, the Pilot Platform will contribute significantly to financial stability in the Asian region. With the advanced economies undergoing structural adjustment and fiscal consolidation, the two-speed recovery will continue to entice portfolio flows into Asia. The key challenges for Asia are to channel such flows to productive use, reduce concentration in short-term positions of the more volatile asset classes, and to avoid such flows spiking up a  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  property price bubble. Channelling the inflows into the bond market will serve these useful purposes as the investors are typically institutional investors who take long-term positions in strategic economic sectors. The global financial crisis has reminded us of the destructive powers of a liquidity crunch and the need for quick access to local currency liquidity in times of stress. In particular, the increased risk aversion arising from the recent financial crises and heightened alertness to the counterparty exposure have raised the demand for secured lending. As an illustration, the average tripartite collateral management deals outstanding administered by Euroclear Bank increased substantially from EUR 76 billion in 2001 to EUR 325 billion in 2011.