Let me tell you a story of how I once failed.
It was in Prague, in September of 2000. I had recently been appointed as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. My goal was to turn the IMF into a center of excellence that was to ensure the stability of the global financial system.
I was worried about the development the financial markets were taking at the time, because I was no longer able to gain a perspective on the gigantic financing volumes and the overly complex financial products. That is why I began to develop in-house expertise within the IMF on capital market policy. This was not welcomed by everyone. In fact, I was surprised to note that the G7 countries were quite hesitant to subject themselves to an assessment of their financial sectors; after all, these reviews had been resolved by the member states of the International Monetary Fund in 1999, as a lesson learned from the financial crisis in Asia.
Many people familiar with these matters had warned of the growing risk to the system as a whole. But these warnings went unheeded in the capital cities of the industrialized nations: no-one was willing to actually exercise political authority over the financial markets.
Now, the big wheels have broken down and we are experiencing a crisis, the outcome of which may define the 21st century. I believe this could be for our good, provided we are able to learn from our mistakes.
(Horst Köhler es el presidente de la República Federal de Alemania. Antes ha sido Director Gerente del Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI). 'El Discurso de Berlin' es una tradición desde 1997: discursos anuales de los presidentes alemanes o estadistas invitados sobre temas de gran trascendencia.)
