In early 2009, in Davos last year, we were coping with the most demanding situation since more than 60 years. The financial crisis had turned into an economic free fall with the grave and immediate threat of having a depression which could have been as grave as 1929. This free fall lasted two full quarters: Q4 of 2008 and Q1 of 2009.
We have avoided, thanks to the measures we took, the materialization of the depression. At this Davos meeting, we have a unique occasion to compare notes because you have here the private sector, both financial and non-financial, as well as the public authorities, the executive branches, members of parliaments, central banks, coming from both, the industrialized and the emerging world.