DAVOS

By Lucia Newman in Americas on January 28th, 2010
Photo from AFP

What a difference from Davos! 

No fashionable three piece suits, no fancy parties or waiters serving cocktails to the world's richest and most powerful after a day of discussions in state of the art conference rooms.  

Here in Porto Alegre it's strictly sandals and tennis shoes at the world's largest gathering of social movements and NGO's, the World Social Forum. The heat is excrutiating and there is no airconditioning at the seminars taking place in old warehouses and - fittingly - in a recycled therno-electric plant.

It has been exactly ten years since the first World Soical Forum was convened here in Porto Alegre as an alternative  to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

By Tania Page in Europe on January 28th, 2010
Photo by EPA
Bill Clinton is here with his hand out for Haiti.
 
As an orator the former US president was in fine form. He made a passionate plea for immediate cash and – perhaps just as importantly – long term investment.
 
He seems to have aged since the earthquake, Haiti is a country very close to his (and Hillary’s) heart. They honeymooned there and since the country was hit by several serious hurricanes in 2008, Mr Clinton has been the UN’s Special Envoy to Haiti.
 
Despite the familiar images of the terrible destruction in Haiti and the loss of life, he’s convinced the country will "rise from the ashes".
 
By Tania Page in Europe on January 27th, 2010
Photo by AFP
Banking reform is very much at the forefront of the debate in Davos.
 
Among sessions as varied as ‘Haiti: First Responders back from the Front-Line,’ and the presentation of the Crystal Awards, there was a lively discussion about taking financial risks.
 
In contrast to last year’s forum, when bankers stayed away – reeling from the shock of the global economic meltdown – this year the bankers are back and on the defensive.
 
Responding to US President Barack Obama’s suggestion that banks were too big that they should either opt to be risk takers, or run themselves as traditional savings and loans operations, Bob Diamond, the head of Barclays bank, said he’d seen "no evidence to suggest that shrinking banks is the answer”.  
 
By Stephen Cole in Europe on January 27th, 2010
Photo by AFP

Davos opened with a whimper not a bang. Not a happy face anywhere, or at least that's what the forum's founding father Klaus Schwab has ordered.

In my experience, there's always a party somewhere here, but Schwab insists that this year " there is nothing to celebrate".

He even went further and, with I suspect no sense of irony, (academics tend not to get irony), said: "Some bankers have understood the seriousness of the situation."

I'm sure I will find one somewhere.

Inside the main conference chamber, the hand-picked panels, all chuffed to bits at being asked, went through the motions about bankers' bonuses and  greater regulation.

But the protagonists didn't find any consensus. Around the fringes though, amongst the aid workers, some of the righteous people were making it crystal clear that moneymen and women have lost the trust of the public.

By Teymoor Nabili in Business on January 27th, 2010
Photo by EPA

Maybe Barack Obama's eyes have, indeed, suddenly been opened to the need for reform of the financial sector.

But while he deliberates over the issue, the bankers continue to  present a solid front.

Bob Diamond, the president of Barclays, is the latest to warn of the dire consequences that must surely follow should his bonus sink to below the amount necessary to help him keep the makers of luxury yachts in work.

Diamond, warned today that Obama's plans to limit the size of banks would hit jobs, growth and global trade.

By Tania Page in Business on January 27th, 2010

The World Economic Forum has opened in Davos, Switzerland. The five-day conference will see 2,500 people meeting to discuss a range of issues including global economic recovery, unemployment and the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.

By Stephen Cole in Europe on January 25th, 2010
Photo by EPA

Davos is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. Yes, for the World Economic Forum and its founder Klaus Schwab, life could really begin at 40.

But don't expect any fireworks or cake in this normally serene Swiss mountaintop town as 2,500 decision-making delegates start to arrive not to celebrate but to try and "decision-make".

That's not  to say there won't be parties, but to attend any of the cocktail events, dinner-parties, champagne receptions, or  Havana cigar nights you have to have a private invitation.

And the number of invites you receive over the five days is decided by how useful the corporate event organisers think you might be.

However, all the parties take place after the business of the day and that covers a very wide spectrum of subjects ranging from how to save the global banking system to finding a cure for prostate cancer.

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