Well, I’m back from Switzerland. Europe was great, but boy was it nice to have a stupidly large coffee in a throw-away cup this morning.
On the plane ride home, I wrote a Time.com piece titled “10 things I learned in Davos.” I’ll link to it as soon as I see it go up. (UPDATE: Here it is.)Â Among my learnings: bank CEOs are unrepentant, the Obama Administration is stand-offish, Canada’s central banker is smart and sexy, and no one really knows what sort of financial-sector reform we need (although that’s not going to stop it from coming).
In writing up the list there were a lot of shorter thoughts that didn’t lend themselves to much elaboration so I left them off. What good fodder for a bonus reel. Here they are now, 10 more things I learned in Davos:
10 and 10 is a nifty phrase for referring to 10% unemployment in the U.S. and 10% economic growth in China.
Populism is like a swear word to the people who show up at the World Economic Forum.
Forty percent of energy consumption in the U.S. goes toward heating and cooling buildings.
David Cameron is going to be the U.K.’s next prime minister—he’s just too captivating not to be.
CEOs hate their shareholders and private equity investors are in it for the short term, and they both say so when they’re off-the-record in a Swiss ski resort.
Tithing in Islam is based on assets, not income (and runs at 2.5%).
Eric Schmidt gets more attention when he walks down the hall than Barney Frank.
More cyber attacks come from the U.S. than any other country. Then the list goes: Brazil, China, Germany, India, Poland and the U.K.
The observation that an airplane’s chief risk officer is the pilot can really enthrall a room full of movers and shakers.
It’s impossible to escape people talking about the movie Avatar.