As my train pulled into the station at a snow-covered Davos a few days ago, I was prepared to be cynical. I’d had dinner the …
WEF
Davos debrief: 10 more things I learned
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.) Among my learnings: bank CEOs are unrepentant, …
Davos round-up: Day 4
Congressman Barney Frank reports that after closed-door meetings with bank executives, regulators and central bankers, everyone understands that reforms are coming, and that while those reforms will be internationally coordinated, they won’t be identical from country to country.
Driver’s licenses for the Internet
I just went to a panel discussion about Internet security and let me tell you, it was scar-y. Between individual fraud, organized crime, corporate espionage and government spying, it’s an incredibly dangerous world out there, which, according to one panelist, is growing exponentially worse.
These are incredibly complex problems that …
Davos round-up: Day 3
Obama economic adviser Larry Summers cautions that the U.S. economy still has a long way to go before it’s fully back to normal, even though fourth quarter annualized growth came in at 5.7%.
Computer mogul Bill Gates promises $10 billion for vaccine research and delivery over the next decade, double what his foundation spent on vaccines …
What banks do and don’t want out of new regulation
The buzz in the halls here at Davos continues to be about financial regulation. Yesterday the world’s largest banks had a closed-door strategy session, and tomorrow they’re meeting with regulators and policy makers, including U.S. Congressman Barney Frank.
This afternoon Deutsche Bank CEO Joseph Ackermann gave an update on what the …
Davos round-up: Day 2
Bill Clinton pops by to encourage continued support of Haiti and says the nation could emerge with an economy stronger than it had before.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou denies that his country is looking for emergency funding to finance its budget deficit.
The heads of Bank of America, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, …
Is international financial regulation possible?
A lot of the talk here at Davos is, unsurprisingly, about financial regulation. At TIME’s Board of Economists yesterday morning, David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group had a nice take on why we probably shouldn’t hold our breath for a bunch of nations getting together to pass the same laws in order to prevent regulatory arbitrage:
“At
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Davos round-up: Day 1
Congressman Barney Frank says he was caught off-guard by the timing of last week’s unveiling of the Volcker Rule, but he likes the idea and it shouldn’t be a problem to work into the financial-reform bill he’s got going in the House.
Barclays chief Bob Diamond says he does not like the Volcker Rule and doesn’t understand why banks like …
Can banks be too big?
Each year TIME co-hosts the opening panel at Davos. And each year some schmuck like me has to immediately write up a story about the discussion to make the deadline of our European magazine edition. Since I’ll be working on that for a good chunk of the day, I thought I’d leave you with some early thoughts from one of our …
Who’s not at Davos
So far a big topic of conversation here in Davos is who decided not to attend this year’s World Economic Forum. Now, maybe that has something to do with the fact that the festivities don’t officially kick off until tonight and the panel discussions don’t begin until tomorrow, and so all people are left with is checking in at their …
