Davos arrives as world on verge of nervous breakdown
Jan 19, 2015 15:18:13 GMT -5
Post by J.J.Gibbs on Jan 19, 2015 15:18:13 GMT -5
Davos arrives as world on verge of nervous breakdown
Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY 2:45 p.m. EST January 19, 2015
LONDON — Do-gooding captains of industry and government will travel up a Swiss mountain this week for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos with one hefty task on their minds: how to make the world a better place.
Dozens of heads of state and 2,500 business leaders, along with cultural emissaries and experts from across the entire field of human endeavor, will pile into the Alpine ski town — population 11,142 — for five days of intense workshops, speeches and fast-and-furious networking starting Tuesday night.
"This event is an extraordinary opportunity and keeps its validity because it's able to attract so many interesting people from the world of business and government and other communities for a relatively informal and open conversation," said Ian Goldin, a Davos veteran, and the director of the Oxford Martin School, a research institute attached to Oxford University.
This year there is no shortage of global wounds that require bandaging, if not tourniquets, at the 45th Davos meeting. As delegates get ready to assemble high up in the Swiss Alps, the world appears on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
"I think it's clear the conversations in Davos will be more serious than in recent years because the threats appear more imminent," Goldin said.
Islamic extremists show no sign of slackening their barbarous pace, as evidenced in the recent attacks in Paris and Nigeria. Fears have resurfaced over Greece's upcoming elections and what they might mean for the future of the eurozone. Plummeting commodities prices have thrown emerging markets into disarray.
USATODAY
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Economic growth in China has stalled. Cybersecurity looks increasingly perilous. A global Ebola crisis claimed more than 8,400 lives. Russia's proxies in Ukraine may sow fresh volatility. And with 2014 the hottest year on record, there is of course climate change.
"Decision-makers meeting in Davos must focus on ways to reduce climate risk while building more efficient, cleaner and lower-carbon economies," former Mexican president Felipe Calderón told USA TODAY. "They also need to boost growth at a time of growing economic uncertainty."
But Davos is more than a well-heeled, high-altitude setting to recount all that's wrong with the world. Klaus Schwab, the German-born founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, said this year's theme — the not-atypically vague "New Global Context" — is partly about creating the conditions to restore confidence and trust in the world's future.
"Pessimism has become too much the zeitgeist of our time," he said during a pre-event news conference. "So we will explore what are the fundamental forces at work technologically, socially, economically, which require new dimensions for our decision-making, and here I think we should particularly concentrate on the opportunities, and not only on the threats."
But does enough get achieved at the forum to justify the approximately $40,000 ticket cost?
Asked specifically about what has been achieved since last year's meeting, Schwab said the forum is involved in more than 40 initiatives involving collaboration with government and business in areas including infrastructure financing, climate protection and poverty reduction.
"We made substantial progress and will continue to strive for action-oriented outcomes also this year," he said in an e-mail to USA TODAY.
That may not satisfy everyone, but the rich and powerful keep coming back each year to Europe's highest town to breathe in the global elite air and plod through the snow.
There is good news for the American delegation, who will arrive in Switzerland on the coattails of an economic growth rate that at 5% is motoring ahead of its European peers. Growth is flatlining, or worse, in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere in Europe. With deflation in the region also a clear and present danger, those countries for the first time are staring down the barrel of quantitative easing or similar monetary stimulus measures from the European Central Bank this week.
"I wouldn't say they'll be euphoric, but the Americans will certainly be very upbeat, very optimistic," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS, an economics consultancy.
For everyone else, there will at least be music. The Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will be singing in the event's opening ceremony.
link
Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY 2:45 p.m. EST January 19, 2015
LONDON — Do-gooding captains of industry and government will travel up a Swiss mountain this week for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos with one hefty task on their minds: how to make the world a better place.
Dozens of heads of state and 2,500 business leaders, along with cultural emissaries and experts from across the entire field of human endeavor, will pile into the Alpine ski town — population 11,142 — for five days of intense workshops, speeches and fast-and-furious networking starting Tuesday night.
"This event is an extraordinary opportunity and keeps its validity because it's able to attract so many interesting people from the world of business and government and other communities for a relatively informal and open conversation," said Ian Goldin, a Davos veteran, and the director of the Oxford Martin School, a research institute attached to Oxford University.
This year there is no shortage of global wounds that require bandaging, if not tourniquets, at the 45th Davos meeting. As delegates get ready to assemble high up in the Swiss Alps, the world appears on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
"I think it's clear the conversations in Davos will be more serious than in recent years because the threats appear more imminent," Goldin said.
Islamic extremists show no sign of slackening their barbarous pace, as evidenced in the recent attacks in Paris and Nigeria. Fears have resurfaced over Greece's upcoming elections and what they might mean for the future of the eurozone. Plummeting commodities prices have thrown emerging markets into disarray.
USATODAY
Report says richest 1% will control 50% of wealth by 2016
Economic growth in China has stalled. Cybersecurity looks increasingly perilous. A global Ebola crisis claimed more than 8,400 lives. Russia's proxies in Ukraine may sow fresh volatility. And with 2014 the hottest year on record, there is of course climate change.
"Decision-makers meeting in Davos must focus on ways to reduce climate risk while building more efficient, cleaner and lower-carbon economies," former Mexican president Felipe Calderón told USA TODAY. "They also need to boost growth at a time of growing economic uncertainty."
But Davos is more than a well-heeled, high-altitude setting to recount all that's wrong with the world. Klaus Schwab, the German-born founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, said this year's theme — the not-atypically vague "New Global Context" — is partly about creating the conditions to restore confidence and trust in the world's future.
"Pessimism has become too much the zeitgeist of our time," he said during a pre-event news conference. "So we will explore what are the fundamental forces at work technologically, socially, economically, which require new dimensions for our decision-making, and here I think we should particularly concentrate on the opportunities, and not only on the threats."
But does enough get achieved at the forum to justify the approximately $40,000 ticket cost?
Asked specifically about what has been achieved since last year's meeting, Schwab said the forum is involved in more than 40 initiatives involving collaboration with government and business in areas including infrastructure financing, climate protection and poverty reduction.
"We made substantial progress and will continue to strive for action-oriented outcomes also this year," he said in an e-mail to USA TODAY.
That may not satisfy everyone, but the rich and powerful keep coming back each year to Europe's highest town to breathe in the global elite air and plod through the snow.
There is good news for the American delegation, who will arrive in Switzerland on the coattails of an economic growth rate that at 5% is motoring ahead of its European peers. Growth is flatlining, or worse, in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere in Europe. With deflation in the region also a clear and present danger, those countries for the first time are staring down the barrel of quantitative easing or similar monetary stimulus measures from the European Central Bank this week.
"I wouldn't say they'll be euphoric, but the Americans will certainly be very upbeat, very optimistic," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS, an economics consultancy.
For everyone else, there will at least be music. The Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will be singing in the event's opening ceremony.
link