Business leaders--and I use that term loosely-- met in Davos for the annual World Economic forum summit over the weekend, with other civic and governmental leaders. How could i have forgotten to tell you about it?
Here is the schedule and a link to the website....
Davos Schedule
Forgive me. In any event, there wasn't anything special as Davos this year lost its mass appeal.
Folks, from world over, normally gather around the story telling circle, to hear about the exploits of the Masters of the Universe. However, the Masters of the Universe, have masterfully dodged the session this year.
Some guys, like the ousted Thain from Merrill Lynch, was supposed to be hosting a party this year as ML normally does. But, because he is no more and the company, is being forced to cut back, the party is off and so is he.
I didn't think it would have been wise to have a party in the midst of all of this turmoil in the financial markets, caused by financiers. It would have been bad PR, to say the very least!
For the most part, bankers got the brunt of the criticism as well they should. Politicians, particularly the ones from Russia and China (go figure), were bashing the entire Western Capitalist model.
Ah well....perhaps we would have better news in 2010?
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4 comments:
There were some interesting discussions emerging out of Davos, as you mentioned russia and china's west bashing was alarming. Joe Stiglitz had some bad words to say about 'bad bank' idea.
I'm surprised that China thinks it has nothing to do with current crisis. The massive credit boom in US, which is at the root of this crisis, was partially funded by Chinese excess reservs invetmented in US. How did China earn its excess reserves? By keeping Yuan artificially low against US$ to help chinese exporters.
Hi Aniket,
It's all the WEst's fault--it always is!! Don't you know this by now? In fact, it is always America's greed and ignorance that leads it!!
In any event, when the money was making in China off of American dollars, they didn't say a peep--said America did not know what it was talking about. But, now, they [China] is about to have a really serious socio-economic backlash and now, the only real loser will be China--if they can't pull off another massacre the size of Tienanmen square!!
Best,
Youri
p.s.
Stiglitz is juts a little tender after the bad break with the IMF---he was right, however!
Yes, I agree. China is going to get hit badly. It's interesting to note that Japan has completely abandoned its policy to intervene in currency markets to keep Yen lower. Looks like Japan has learnt its lesson. But it'll really bold decision on China's part if they decide to follow.
Hi Aniket,
Thank you for bringing up Japan. They have also been hit hard in the export sector.
I did not know that it was official to abandon the policy of YEN manipulation, or, depreciation. However, seeing that net exports would [probably] not increase because of it, it appears to be a wise decision--it would raise domestic inflation, making the slump more protracted and keep prices higher above the new inflation targets
American's are not in a spending mood, at all!!
Best,
Youri
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