Role: Summers will join a panel called “Pain and Gain: Prosperity with Austerity,” which will address whether economies can grow while governments and individuals wean themselves off of debt.
What’s at Stake in 2012: Summers has fallen out of favor with those on the left after his penchant for deregulation was skewered in the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job. But President Obama is nonetheless reportedly considering the former Clinton Treasury Secretary (and former head of the National Economic Counsel under Obama himself) for a gig as head of the World Bank. No better place than Davos to lobby for such a globally integral position.