such business bis central bankers ’ speeches practice. we often equate moral behavior with legal behavior ; but even if an action may not be illegal, it still may not be a moral one. also, unethical business practice can trigger on the demands of the clients or stakeholders, as sometimes the push to act unethically comes from them. often clients demand forged bills of payments, overvaluation of their assets for collateral against loansfrom banks, manipulating survey of insurance claim ; window dressed balance sheets of companies to borrow from banks, etc. and, service providers are compelled to do the same, or else, financial services executives feel that adhering to ethical standards inhibits career progression at their company. however, this situation arises only when we are marred by unethical business thinking everywhere. events like this are there to change such an environment. finally, i thank the organizers for having commenced such a useful discussion. thank you very much. bis central bankers ’ speeches

alan greenspan : the important engine of growth for our mutual economies - the force of globalization speech by mr alan greenspan, chairman of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, at the banco de mexico 75th anniversary conference “ stabilization and monetary policy : the international experience ”, held in mexico city, on 14 november 2000. * * * i am honored to be speaking before this distinguished group on the occasion of the bank of mexico ’ s 75th anniversary. appropriately, major mileposts encourage introspection and a search for perspective. this morning, i shall focus my remarks on the important engine of growth for our mutual economies the force of globalization. although globalization has its critics, i say with some conviction that the increasing interaction among national economies has engendered benefits that have significantly exceeded their costs over the years. and the clearest way to understand those net benefits in the 21st century is to examine the record of the prior two centuries, both for ways in which the current experience is similar and for ways in which it is different. after touching upon the benefits that closer linkages have provided to us all, i will then discuss the importance of not ceding the progress that we have won thus far. how the world is similar though economic data are increasingly suspect as we look further back into the past, three regularities in the long sweep of the record strongly suggest that the degree of globalization today is not measurably greater than that prevailing in the century - ago world of our great grandparents. one is the importance of trade in the overall economy. measures of total trade across industrial countries, including those that simply sum merchandise exports and imports, have grown rapidly relative to total output over the past fifty years. but this growth mostly reverses declines in the ratio of total trade to gdp in the first half of the 20th century. in fact, for many industrial countries, total trade as a share of gdp is not much above levels that were commonplace in the late 19th century. second, trade in goods was accompanied by substantial trade in assets. a century ago, net capital flows across the major industrial economies were often greater than today when scaled to gdp. this integration of global financial markets was made possible in part by technological advances, including importantly the laying of the transatlantic cable in 1866. and, like today, open markets allowed capital to flow to the most productive uses where prospective returns were judged to be highest. third, because funds could flow across national borders to their most profitable uses, national investment