Risk based models, assumptions and priorities

September was a hard month for the global economy. Last week, in his speech to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC last week Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group considered the implications of the current financial crisis in the US and Western Europe for the world’s developing economies. He also proposed a number of priorities in terms of addressing the crisis. Against a background where many critics were blaming free markets, where many were questioning the failures of government institutions and pointing fingers at the failings of the United States as the architect of today’s global economy, Mr Zoellick argued that there was no turning back the clock on globalization and allowing the crisis of today to blind us to the opportunity of tomorrow. He called for a globalization where both the opportunities and the responsibilities are more widely shared. In this edited extract from his speech, Mr. Zoellick argued for the modernisation of the current models of multilateralism and of market risk to enable these to respond more effectively to a changing world economy