The Davos World Economic Forum: A lot of ‘hot air’?

Participants walk in front of the congress centre prior to the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21, 2014. Some 40 world leaders gather in the Swiss ski resort Davos to discuss and debate a wide range of issues including the causes of conflicts plaguing the Middle East, and how to reinvigorate the global economy.
Stephen BeardForeign Policy

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Eric Piermont/Getty Images

Participants walk in front of the congress centre prior to the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21, 2014. Some 40 world leaders gather in the Swiss ski resort Davos to discuss and debate a wide range of issues including the causes of conflicts plaguing the Middle East, and how to reinvigorate the global economy.

by Stephen Beard January 21, 2014 – 11:56am

• Story

“There are a lot of people there who love to hear themselves talk, that go on at length. That mountaintop in Switzerland each year is warmed by quite a bit of hot air.”

Stressed out by Davos?

Some 2,500 of the world’s most powerful business and political leaders will make their annual pilgrimage to a mountaintop in the Swiss Alps this week. They won’t be seeking a religious experience (well, most of them won’t). They’re headed for the small ski resort of Davos for the 44th annual World Economic Forum – four days of economic discussion and debate.

Not everyone is expecting many major revelations.

“There will be a lot of bloviating,” says David Rothkopf of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “There are a lot of people there who love to hear themselves talk, that go on at length. That mountaintop in Switzerland each year is warmed by quite a bit of hot air.”

Anthony Hilton, Financial Editor of the London Evening Standard is another Davos skeptic: “They go on about the ‘Spirit of Davos’ and how they’re shaping the world. But they’re not. They’re actually revelling in their own self-importance and smugness. It’s an exercise in self-preening and group think.”

The gigantic agenda seems well-meaning enough. Among the 250 subjects under discussion over the next four days are: climate change, the future of healthcare, the nightmare of youth unemployment and the challenge of scientific innovation.

…(read more).

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