Time for a new business ethos

In hindsight, we are all surprised that it had to come this far. But let's be honest: the warning voices, even from insiders such as George Soros, have been around for a long time. When the World Economic Forum published its Global Risk Report in early 2007, it warned of exactly those risks which have now brought about a collapse of the system.

In my opening speech at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2008, I spoke about a schizophrenic world and how we would be held accountable for our sins. The reason why the writing on the wall was not seen not only had to do with denying inconvenient truths, but also was because nobody really felt responsible or capable to act.

Our international system, created in the middle of the last century and based on multilateral institutions, either lacked the authority or the competency to deal with the challenges of a global financial system that went overboard.