Now we must devise effective ways to support countries' efforts to implement these standards and provide incentives for those efforts to be significant. Going forward, we need to find new ways to deal effectively with the emergencies we have seen in recent months and the contagion that these can cause. We need to strengthen governments' capacity to opt for cooperation over costly, often counterproductive, unilateralism. The problems we have seen in financial systems in the United States and other industrial economies over the years speak to the difficulty of addressing these issues effectively. And I don't need to remind this audience of the difficulties involved in making legal and regulatory reforms translate into improved behavior and making new institutions come to life.
Due diligence is one thing.
True diligence quite another. And when times are good it can be a brave financial officer who forces the chairman to look at the small print. And yet, if these crises are a reminder of the challenge that these issues present, to industrial nations as well as emerging ones, they are no less a reminder of the critical importance of resolving them if we are to build the strong and stable, truly global economy in which we all have such an enormous stake. Supporting globalization and the benefits it offers is important. But it is not enough.