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The theme of this conference – "Adapting to a New World Order" – suggests that it is clear how global commerce and finance will be reorganized in the wake of the current crisis. However, the outcome is far from preordained. How we manage the rebalancing of the global economy could profoundly influence how open, equitable, and prosperous the New World Order will be.

The financial turbulence that began in the U.S. subprime-mortgage market in August 2007 reached maximum intensity towards the end of 2008, and enveloped the entire global economy. Strains that had previously been concentrated in a few major financial centers turned into a full-blown crisis, affecting both industrial and emerging-market economies through trade, financial, and confidence channels.

These are very challenging times. The Canadian economy is in recession. The global economy is facing a crisis of confidence, triggered by the most severe financial meltdown since the Great Depression; fanned by sharp falls in trade, manufacturing output, and financial wealth; and intensified by steep increases in unemployment.

Across the world's major economies, addressing the failures of banking ranks among the highest policy priorities. In the harsh glare of the current financial turmoil, it is clear that many banks outside of Canada were either not doing their jobs or were doing them in ways that created enormous risks.

With your professional interests in foreign exchange, money markets, capital markets, and derivatives, I'm sure the past year and a half has been exciting and interesting – if those are the right words. We've been living through a period of astonishing financial turbulence, historic marketplace losses, and serious threats to financial stability.

These are challenging times, indeed. We are facing a financial crisis without comparison for generations. Most financial markets have experienced historic declines in prices and unprecedented spikes in volatility.

The extraordinary turmoil of 2007 and 2008 has brought to the fore many issues and challenges, most of which will be with us for some time as we deal with what has become the deepest financial crisis since the 1930s. Policy-makers around the world have taken bold and timely steps to deal with the financial instability and economic crisis, but it will take time for confidence to be restored and for markets to become fully functional again.

It has been a difficult year for capital markets professionals. The turmoil has deteriorated into a full-blown financial crisis. Most financial markets have experienced historic falls in prices, and some are strained to the point of closing.

The Canadian financial system has fared relatively well through this crisis, thanks to effective regulation and prudent practices that have worked like sandbags to protect our financial system from the storms in today's global economy.

Throughout the years, Canada has been a major beneficiary of London's innovation. Companies of adventurers, conceived and funded in London, opened up large swathes of Canada to international trade.