Davos 2024: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

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A poll conducted of chief economists found three-quarters expecting weak to very weak growth in Europe this year, the most pessimistic outlook of any region.

The chief economist survey, released in conjunction with the World Economic Forum in Davos but conducted in November and December, found a big geographic split, with 93% expecting moderate to strong growth in South Asia and 86% expecting that for East Asia.

For the U.S., 56% expected moderate to strong growth, down from 78% for a poll in September. By contrast, 77% expected weak to very weak growth in Europe, nearly double the number who did in September.

The bleak outlook comes as the Federal Statistical Office reported that Germany’s economy shrank by 0.3% in 2023, after rising by 1.8% in 2022. The statistics agency said high prices and unfavorable financing conditions weighed on Europe’s largest economy.

At the same time, only 13% expect high inflation in the U.S. and in Europe this year. China is the outlier in the other direction, with 76% expecting low or very low inflation.

The World Economic Forum polled economists at banks, consulting firms, international agencies as well as companies including Microsoft and Google.
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www.marketwatch.com

Three-quarters of chief economists expect ‘weak’ or ‘very weak’ growth in Europe this year, Davos poll finds

A poll conducted of chief economists found three-quarters expecting weak to very weak growth in Europe this year, the most pessimistic outlook of any region.
www.marketwatch.com www.marketwatch.com
 

Trump’s ghost stalks Davos​

DAVOS, Switzerland — World leaders gathered together in the Swiss Alps this week are nervous that Donald Trump will be even more anti-global if he returns as United States president.

And they have good reason to be wary.

If polls prove correct, the front-runner for the Republican nomination is set to be crowned winner of the Iowa caucus — the first stage of the U.S. presidential primary process — on Monday night. Meanwhile across the Atlantic in Davos, power brokers are gathering over canapés and drinks for the opening event of this year’s World Economic Forum.

More:

www.politico.eu

Trump’s ghost stalks Davos

Republican front-runner is not yet back in the White House, but he looms large in the minds of influential decision-makers gathered at the World Economic Forum.
www.politico.eu www.politico.eu
 


Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) is pretty active in reporting on Davos/WEF activity.
 
WSJ opinion piece

The Humiliation of Davos Man​

Davos, Switzerland

It’s that time of year. Corporate chieftains, policymakers, NGO warriors, journalists and intellectuals are heading to the Swiss Alps for the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. If the delegates are serious about this year’s theme, “Rebuilding Trust,” some hard conversations lie ahead.

On both the far left and the far right, conspiracy theorists see the WEF and its allies as an all-powerful network successfully imposing a nefarious agenda on the rest of the world. This reading gets Davos exactly wrong.

The real scandal of Davos isn’t that it’s taking over the world. It’s that it’s failing. The Davos agenda—a global security order, an integrated world economy and progress toward objectives including decarbonization, gender equality and the abolition of dire poverty—is controversial in some quarters and on some points but is neither secret nor particularly nefarious. But far from imposing this agenda on a captive world, the Davos elites are wringing their hands as the dream slowly dies.

More:

 
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Argentina's President Javier Milei was en route by commercial jet to the World Economic Forum in Davos in Switzerland on Tuesday, taking selfies with passengers on board and criticizing what he called the event's "socialist agenda".
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Asked by reporters on his flight about his plans at Davos, he said he aimed to "seed ideas of freedom in a forum that is contaminated by the 2030 socialist agenda, which will only bring misery to the world".
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It should start at the 6 minute mark (when Milei starts talking - nothing to see, can listen in another tab if you like):



I was really disappointed when I found out Javier Milei was going to the WEF summit.

Until I got a few minutes into his speech and he is just telling them that everything they are doing is wrong and fucked up and the "root of all the worlds problems".

He's a pulling a Gervais at the Golden Globes so far.

And he has just shit all over their socialist model and told them free market capitalism is the only way forward lmao.

I think he just trojan horsed them to shit all over their ideology to their faces but I am going to watch the rest.

He's now pulling out the stats and saying how from year zero to about 1800 global per capita GDP was at rock bottom and never increased during that time and the only thing that changed this was free market capitalism.

He is going HARD with the stats. The crowd is fucking squirming.

Also lmao.

"Free market capitalism and trade is the only way to end hunger and poverty across out planet, the empirical evidence is unquestionable"

Man is fucking railing everything the WEF stands for to their faces lmao.

"The state is financed through coercion."

Man said taxation is theft.

He's now explaining the basics of supply/demand economics.
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What's on the menu?

www.swissinfo.ch

Here’s Where to Eat and Drink at the Davos World Economic Forum

(Bloomberg) -- For 51 weeks a year, the high-altitude Swiss town of Davos is a relatively modest ski resort. Then, for one week in January, Davos turns into the hardest place to book a restaurant table on Earth. This year’s projected attendees for the World Economic Forum (Jan. 15-19) include...
www.swissinfo.ch www.swissinfo.ch

nypost.com

Davos’s party secrets: Caviar, magic mushrooms, champagne and A-list private concerts

A wine party features $995 bottles and there’s a war to get ultra-elite guests to your dinner. One CEO is alleged to have brought his sex slave.
nypost.com nypost.com



​

 
The new President of Argentina brings up many solid bullet-points such as Capitalism lifting people out of poverty at an accelerated rate over Socialism. How long until he is labeled a Nazi?
 
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The World Economic Forum is currently holding its annual meeting in Davos.

Argentine president Javier Milei was invited to speak, and did he ever rise to the occasion.

Milei delivered his remarks in Spanish, so an interpreter did simultaneous translation. That means the text I'm quoting from is choppy and imperfect, but it's good enough to give you an idea of what was said.

I can share only excerpts, in order to keep this issue at a manageable length, but these excerpts will certainly give you a sense of the speech:

Good afternoon. Thank you very much. Today I'm here to tell you that the Western world is in danger. And it is endangered because those who are supposed to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism and thereby to poverty.

Unfortunately, in recent decades, motivated by some well-meaning individuals willing to help others and others motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste, the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism. We're here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world. Rather, they are the root cause....

Given the dismal failure of collectivist models and the undeniable advances in the free world, socialists were forced to change their agenda. They left behind the class struggle based on the economic system, and replaced this with other supposed social conflicts, which are just as harmful to life as a community and to economic growth.

The first of these new battles was the ridiculous and unnatural fight between man and woman.... All that this radical feminism agenda has led to is greater state intervention to hinder the economic process, giving jobs to bureaucrats who have not contributed anything to society. Examples: ministries of women or international organizations devoted to promoting this agenda.

Another conflict introduced by socialists is that of humans against nature, claiming that we human beings damage the planet, which should be protected at all costs, going as far as advocating for population control mechanisms or the bloody abortion agenda.

Unfortunately, these harmful ideas have taken a strong hold in our society. Neo-Marxists have managed to co-opt the common sense of the Western world, and this they have achieved by appropriating the media, culture, universities....

The case of Argentina is an empirical demonstration that no matter how rich you may be or how much you may have in terms of natural resources, or how skilled your population may be or educated, or how many bars of gold you may have in the central bank, if measures are adopted that hinder the free functioning of markets, free competition, free price systems, if you hinder trade, if you attack private property, the only possible fate is poverty....

Today, states don't need to directly control the means of production to control every aspect of the lives of individuals, with tools such printing money, debt, subsidies, controlling the interest rate, price controls, and regulations to correct so-called market failures. They can control the lives and fates of millions of individuals....

A good deal of the generally accepted political [positions] in most Western countries are collectivist variants, whether they proclaim to be openly communists, fascists, Nazis, socialists, social Democrats, National Socialists, Democrat Christians, or Christian Democrats.

They are neo-Keynesians, progressive, populist, nationalist or globalists at bottom. There are no major differences. They all say that the state should steer all aspects of the lives of individuals. They all defend a model contrary to the one that led humanity to the most spectacular progress in its history.

We have come here today to invite the rest of the countries in the Western world to get back on the path of prosperity, economic freedom, limited government...and unlimited respect for private property....

The impoverishment produced by collectivism is no fantasy, nor is it an inescapable fate. But it's a reality that we Argentines know very well. We have lived through this. We have been through this because, as I said earlier, ever since we decided to abandon the model of freedom that had made us rich, we have been caught up in a downward spiral, as part of which we are poorer and poorer day by day....

In concluding, I would like to leave a message for all businesspeople here and for those who are not here in person but are following from around the world. Do not be intimidated, either by the political caste or by parasites who live off the state. Do not surrender to a political class that only wants to stay in power and retain its privileges.

You are social benefactors. You are heroes. You're the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we've ever seen. Let no one tell you that your ambition is immoral. If you make money, it's because you offer a better product at a better price, thereby contributing to general well-being.

Do not surrender to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself. You are the true protagonists of this story and rest assured that as from today, Argentina is your staunch, unconditional ally.

So yes, it's fine to speak at the World Economic Forum, as long as you smash them as wicked parasites whose program leads to impoverishment, as Milei just did.

Now if you were to greet Javier Milei in the street you'd need to speak Spanish to him, because I understand he doesn't speak English. And really, before you pack your bags and head to Buenos Aires in search of freedom, it'd be a good idea to learn a bit of the language.
 
I think President Milei's heart is in the right place and I agree that capitalism is the right way to go vrs collectivism. However I am unsure about using GDP as the model for growth. Looking at the big picture what we really have is central bankers providing liquidity to central planners to spend as they see fit. I don't see that lifting anyone out of poverty on a sustainable level.
As we saw from the early 90's right up until today, salaries have not increased across the board. Some have risen and others have remained the same. Part of that is due to the importation of cheap labor or exportation of manufacturing to cheap labor countries.
I would also argue that the money printing has had far more negative impacts on the masses via inflation versus the period of what he called stagflation in the 1800's.
There's the premise of my argument but I don't really feel like typing and elaborating for hrs on it right now but GDP is, in my opinion, a flawed way to measure production. If gas prices go up 20% annually then the calculation goes into the GDP number and it looks like GDP is growing when in fact inflation is pushing that number higher via food, fuel, housing, act which are all fueled by money printing and inflation.
 
searcher said:
WSJ opinion piece

The Humiliation of Davos Man​

Davos, Switzerland

It’s that time of year. Corporate chieftains, policymakers, NGO warriors, journalists and intellectuals are heading to the Swiss Alps for the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. If the delegates are serious about this year’s theme, “Rebuilding Trust,” some hard conversations lie ahead.

On both the far left and the far right, conspiracy theorists see the WEF and its allies as an all-powerful network successfully imposing a nefarious agenda on the rest of the world. This reading gets Davos exactly wrong.

The real scandal of Davos isn’t that it’s taking over the world. It’s that it’s failing. The Davos agenda—a global security order, an integrated world economy and progress toward objectives including decarbonization, gender equality and the abolition of dire poverty—is controversial in some quarters and on some points but is neither secret nor particularly nefarious. But far from imposing this agenda on a captive world, the Davos elites are wringing their hands as the dream slowly dies.

More:

Click to expand...
Hurry up and do better!

No surprise the new, improved Murdoch WSJ would be foursquare behind Davos Man. SUCH a DREAM! Oh, what great things we could do...if only the RIGHT PEOPLE were in charge, and were working SMARTER at it!

God help us.
 
Updates / talking points

Davos 2024: Business elite gives verdict on Trump; Ukraine encouraged by commitments​

Political and business leaders continued talks at the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani and Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis were among the speakers to address delegates at the Swiss town’s Congress Center.

CNBC’s guests included the director-general of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba and Barclays Group CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan

More:

 
The "business elites" just want moar of that ZIRP-QE Free Money.

Any return to sustainable normalcy threatens that. No wonder they're so panicked about Trump.
 

Why the Davos Smart Set Sounds Dumb​

In a complex world, having original insights is harder than ever.

DAVOS, Switzerland — “The rich,” wrote Scott Fitzgerald, “are different from you and me.” By legend, Ernest Hemingway complimented his firm grasp of the obvious: “Yes, they have more money.”

In a modern global economy, they also have more of other things: More invitations, more connections, more caterers.

Just what are these elites talking and scheming about here in the Alps at the annual convening of the World Economic Forum? It turns out they are talking (too crowded to actually scheme) about the same things you were in that fidgety conversation with some neighbor at your kid’s birthday party; with a colleague on the elevator; or with an old friend who evidently watches a lot of cable at your high school reunion.

More:

www.politico.com

Why the Davos Smart Set Sounds Dumb

In a complex world, having original insights is harder than ever.
www.politico.com www.politico.com
 
That was a lot of words to say that the author isn't invited to sit at any table where real power is schemed. He apparently can't see the forest for the trees with respect to what the conference sessions are promoting either.
 
Lotta links here for anyone interested.

www.mckinsey.com

McKinsey and the World Economic Forum

McKinsey is a strategic partner to the World Economic Forum (WEF). Read our latest insights around the key topics discussed at the Davos 2024 conference.
www.mckinsey.com www.mckinsey.com
 
searcher said:
^^^^^

The "fear" one is hysterical. lol
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Well, how else would you describe getting the media to convince people to volunteer for deadly experimental clot shots to combat a disease that had a 1% mortality rate? :ROFLMAO: And apparently, they did a really good job of it because there are still some people who are lining up for their sixth "boosters". :lmao:

vax5.jpg
 
^^^^^
I wasn't talking about the message. It's the pic that's hysterical. My favorite was the one you posted with Biden in a diaper being carried by a woman. Funniest one I ever saw.
 
I've got a brother-in-law who is one of them. He's been sick for two and a half years now. He's convinced he has "long covid" despite the fact that he has never been diagnosed with covid in the first place. Every time he gets a "booster", he gets worse. He's puzzled why the doctors can't seem to figure out what is wrong with him. :lmao:

vax398.jpg
 

Can America & the World Survive the Davos "Billionaire’s Woodstock"?​


Neoliberalism broke the world, but the neoliberals at the height of political and corporate power don’t want to admit it and so helplessly complain about the backlash to it that they call populism. The easy solution is to end neoliberal policies and return to democracy and its associated classic American values.

But how?

The groupies and oligarchs at the annual Davos “Billionaire’s Woodstock” are confused and frightened. More than 50 countries around the world are facing elections this year, and rightwing populists aligning themselves with Putin and against democracy are on the rise. Particularly here in America.

As Nahal Toosi writes for Politico:

“But years into the transnational struggle with resurgent populism, the corporate leaders in Davos appear to have no serious solutions.
“In conversation after conversation here, I detected resignation and helplessness among business executives when it came to their counterparts in government.”
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There’s always a tension between oligarchs and voters in a democracy.
More:

hartmannreport.com

Can America & the World Survive the Davos "Billionaire’s Woodstock"?

America fought back America’s oligarchs twice; will we succeed this third time with an actual oligarch (Trump) running for president as a neofascist populist?
hartmannreport.com hartmannreport.com
 
Not specific to the current conference, but still apropos - ECB pushing WEF bullshit, but Euro banks aren't buying it:
Most big banks in Europe are failing to adjust their business to the looming decarbonisation of the bloc's economy and thus face increased financial, reputational and legal risk, the European Central Bank (ECB) said on Tuesday. The ECB has been pushing banks for years to factor climate considerations into how they lend and assess risk but lenders have failed to heed its warnings and threats of additional capital requirements.
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No, the World Economic Forum is not coming for your coffee​

A journey down a WEF rabbit hole.​


“Basically, the coffee that we all drink, emits between 15 to 20 tons of CO₂ per ton of coffee. So, we should all know that. This is every time we drink coffee we are basically putting CO₂ into the atmosphere.”
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That’s Hubert Keller, senior managing partner at the Swiss private bank Lombard Odier, speaking at this year’s World Economic Forum.

Are you turning into WEF-Watch?

No. I’m not a fan of the World Economic Forum though. It’s a meeting for hyper-capitalists, who fly (many in private jets) to the luxury ski resort of Davos in order to give the impression that they want to find solutions for the problems that they created in the first place.

As the economist Michael Roberts points out, they invariably view problems from the point of view of global capital. And their solutions are “driven by the aim to sustain the world capitalist order”.

In 2003, Klaus Schwab introduced the idea of each Davos meeting having a theme. The first theme was “Building Trust”. This year’s theme was “Rebuilding Trust”.

More:

 
One of the greatest tricks Satan pulled, was to convince his targets that he didn't exist.
 
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