According to this theory, political time – dictated by electoral terms – is too short to tackle far-reaching issues effectively. There is a considerable body of literature on this theory, according to which some areas of economic policy, in particular monetary  9  4  A. Greenspan (2009), “The Fed Didn't Cause the Housing Bubble”, Wall Street Journal, 11 March 2009. BIS Review 66/2009  policy, should not be determined by discretion but should instead be subject to rules. 10 This stream of analysis, while certainly relevant, does not seem sufficient to explain behaviour which is repeated over time, particularly in democratic systems where such behaviour should ultimately be penalised. An alternative theory is that the presumed short-sightedness of economic policy only reflects a more general short-sightedness in advanced societies, in particular with regard to the potential for economic development. A certain level of indebtedness may be appropriate if income is expected to grow at a sustained pace, but excessive if such expectations turn out to be too optimistic. It would not be surprising if, in a society in which citizens have excessively optimistic expectations with regard to increases in their income, economic policymakers were to implement policies aimed at systematically stimulating aggregate demand. This has happened on various occasions in the past. In the mid-1970s, after the first oil shock, most industrial economies did not realise that the increase in energy prices had substantially reduced the growth potential of their economies.

I have been informed that this Gateway will also include in its content, the Shariah resolutions database of the International Shariah Research Academy (ISRA) following the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Thomson Reuters and ISRA that is scheduled today. ISRA was established in 2008 to provide a platform for greater engagement amongst practitioners, scholars, regulators, academicians in the area of Shariah and to promote applied research contemporary issues in Islamic finance. Their efforts have contributed to the harmonisation of Shariah interpretations and thus the standardisation of Shariah applications and practices is Islamic finance. ISRA has now become an important repository of knowledge for Shariah views or fatwas. The Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway thus has the potential to become an important vehicle for worldwide dissemination of high quality information on Islamic finance. In performing the function as an aggregator of information on Islamic finance, the Gateway will showcase the dynamic pulse of the global Islamic financial services industry. This increased information flow across borders in real time will also reinforce the trend of the internationalisation of Islamic finance. There is already an increasing level of foreign participation in the Islamic financial markets resulting in the increase of cross border flows in the international Islamic financial system. The increased information flow would allow for the raising of funds in different jurisdictions and for the investor base to be broadened further. Liberalisation has also brought greater foreign institutional presence in national jurisdictions resulting in diversity of players in the Islamic financial systems.