Davos, Switzerland
I am writing you again from Davos, this village high up in the Alps. I have written you seven times from here — seven times running. And Davos is more beautiful than ever: full of snow, like one of those shake-up globes, or some Disney version of Switzerland. The Disney version of Switzerland is true, trust me. If you heard a yodel from a braided lass, you wouldn’t bat an eye. It would be practically expected.
By the way, when people say “Davos” — at least in a political-cultural-economic context — they mean the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. And that’s where we are. (Forgive that royal “we,” would you? I sort of meant readers and me.) (I know it’s technically “readers and I,” to go with “we” — please get off my back, I haven’t begun yet.)
Let me begin by quoting some advance press, some pre-conference press. This is from the
International Herald Tribune:
Politicians, not corporate titans, are poised to be the big draw this year, echoing the broader power shift away from the free market as one government after another tries to prop up its sinking economy.
This time, the prototype of the jet-setting “Davos Man” may well be Gordon Brown, the dour British prime minister, who spent last week staving off another round of bank failures in London.
And with much of the financial system in Britain and the United States edging toward a possible government takeover, the 2009 agenda at Davos, “Shaping the Post-Crisis World,” seems to have concentrated minds on the here-and-now more than past themes like climate change and globalization.
“The pendulum has swung and power has moved back to governments,” said Klaus Schwab, the German-born economics professor who founded the World Economic Forum in 1971 and has been its impresario ever since. “This is the biggest economic crisis since Davos began.”
That is not unsobering. We further read,
Some invitees do not want to test Schwab’s hospitality. John Thain, the former chief executive of Merrill Lynch, abruptly canceled [his attendance at the meeting] after being pushed out on Thursday from a top job at Bank of America, which acquired Merrill last year. Thain, a Davos regular who once ran the New York Stock Exchange, was to have participated in a panel on Saturday called “The Bank of the Future.”
But,
[o]f course, when it comes to economizing at Davos, everything is relative. At BB Heli, which provides helicopter service to Davos, business is still strong, but more passengers are opting for a single-engine helicopter rather than the faster twin-engine model, said Marcus Baumann, the general manager. So instead of paying 9,800 francs for the 45-minute flight, the cost is cut to 4,900.
I, for one, would never travel in any but the twin-engine model. (Just kidding. I go by bus — from Zurich, that is.) (I remember what Adolf Busch said, about early string-quartet traveling. Or was it Sasha Schneider? In any case, one of them said, “Ve vent by bus.” Darn right. Today’s classical musicians are such whiners.)
A bit more from the IHT:
Along with Brown and Wen [the Chinese boss], other top political figures set to come include Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. All together, the leaders of at least 40 countries will make it up the mountain, up from 27 last year and 20 in 2007.
President Barack Obama is a little too busy to attend, however.
Can Davos occur without the One? We’ll see.
And now let’s have some words from the Wall Street Journal:
The five-day confab, which has signed up about 2,500 participants, will be a more sober affair than usual, organizers say. There are fewer gimmicks — such as scents pumped into session rooms last year by a high-profile perfumer — fewer movie stars have been invited, and fewer lavish parties are being thrown by governments and companies. Goldman Sachs won’t be holding its usual party this year. “In the current environment, we didn’t think it was appropriate,” says spokesman Lucas van Praag.
I have no doubt. But Davos 2009 is no Hooverville, let me tell you. You would not mistake the Promenade — the main thoroughfare — for the Bowery.
More Journal:
“This may be the first Davos where capitalism is widely viewed as a failure, rather than something to be admired,” says Ethan Kapstein, professor of economics and political science at [the] French business school Insead, who has been going to Davos since 1994.
In a sign of the times, many of the financial elite present at past sessions won’t be coming this year. Richard Fuld Jr., CEO of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in the fall, won’t be back this year, according to the organizers. Nor will John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co., who was forced to resign by Merrill’s new owner Bank of America last week. One point of contention was that he had scheduled a trip to Davos, even though Bank of America had signaled it would not be a good idea for him to attend.
More:
“The capitalist myth is lovely and youthful. It kicked off the industrial revolution, but maybe we need a new one,” says Richard Olivier, son of the late British actor Sir Laurence Olivier. Mr. Olivier, who owns a company that gives seminars, will give a dinner talk on business leadership at Davos, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth. The tale shows a heroic soldier turned bad, led to self-delusion by his own ambition and greed — think Lehman Brothers, says Mr. Olivier.
Actually, the “capitalist myth” has made life materially better — and, you could argue, mentally and spiritually better — for untold billions of people (including Richard Olivier).
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