Davos arrives as world on verge of nervous breakdown
Kind of an exaggeration but for a reason prolly...
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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