alan greenspan : globalization remarks by mr alan greenspan, chairman of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, at the institute for international economicsa€™ inauguration of the peter g peterson building, washington, 24 october 2001. * * * i am pleased to be with you tonight as the institute for international economics dedicates this extraordinary new building. i am also pleased to note that you are celebrating your twentieth year in the business of thinking critically about vital international economic issues. it hardly seems that long. before the tragic events of september 11, discussions of the international economy had increasingly come to be centered on issues related to the growing integration of our economies. the strife we had witnessed over economic globalization was the twenty - first century's version of debates over societal organization that go back at least to the dawn of the industrial revolution, and many of the intellectual roots of those debates go back far longer. there has been a simmering down of the more vociferous protests against globalization since september 11. but the debate surrounding the increasing cross - border integration of markets inevitably will be rejoined. the issue elicits such strong reaction because it centers on the important question of how economies are organized and, specifically, how individuals deal with one another. globalization as generally understood involves the increasing interaction of the world's peoples through their national economic systems. of necessity, these economic systems are reasonably compatible and, in at least some important respects, market oriented. during the past half - century, barriers to trade and to financial flows have generally come down, resulting in a significant broadening of world markets. expanding markets, in turn, have enhanced competition and nurtured what joseph schumpeter called " creative destruction, " the continuous scrapping of old technologies to make way for the new. standards of living rise because the depreciation and other cash flows of industries employing older, increasingly obsolescent, technologies are marshaled, along with new savings, to finance the production of capital assets that almost always embody cutting - edge technologies. this is the process by which wealth is created incremental step by incremental step. it presupposes a continuous churning of an economy in which the new displaces the old. the process is particularly evident among those nations that have opened their borders to increased competition. through its effect on economic growth, globalization has been a powerful force acting to raise standards of living. more open economies have recorded the best growth performance ;

philipp m hildebrand : monetary policy situation and economic prospects summary of a speech by dr philipp m hildebrand, member of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the centre for banking studies, lugano, 28 september 2004. the complete speech can be found in french on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * in formulating its medium - term monetary policy, the swiss national bank ( snb ) must take the uncertainty surrounding the development of the economic environment into consideration. the snb believes that the economy is well on the road to recovery, both in switzerland and abroad. for our country, it anticipates real gdp growth of close to 2 % in 2004. sustained growth is also expected for the coming years. consequently, the utilisation of the economy ’ s production capacity will steadily improve, while unemployment will gradually decline. the improved utilisation rate will be accompanied by a rise in inflationary pressure in the medium term. this scenario could be revised, however, if new information were to come to light. the snb will thus continue to monitor economic developments closely and will subsequently draw the necessary monetary policy conclusions.