Since 1974, global political and business leaders have gathered in the small village of Davos, nestled high in the Swiss Alps, to discuss the fate of the world economy.
Jimmy Carter brought his wife Rosalyn. The senior George Bush took Barbara. Bill
Clinton brought … He and Hillary had an arrangement.
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Even the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat attended. No one is really sure if he brought a date.
Between full schedules of skiing, cocktail parties and romantic rendezvous+, the participants struck deals and reached quiet understandings about everything from trade to currency values.
In the midst of the economic downturn, no one really had the heart to cancel, but the tone and tenor of this annual soirée has changed.
Luxury chalets have been replaced with dorms and bunk beds.
Sure Looks Different
No more fondue, truffles and French champagne. Gone are the steaming cups of famously rich Swiss cocoa. It’s Cheese Wiz, Hershey’s and cold duck for this crowd. Even packets of Swiss Miss are in short supply.
Some of the usual suspects are still in attendance, sans American President Barack Obama who’s a little busy trying to pass his massive economic stimulus package.
With the deepening gloom over the world economy, conference organizers have brought in motivational speakers like Ben Stein, Boomer Esiason and Bruce Jenner.
Ron Popeil – inventor of the Pocket Fisherman – will chair a panel on new business opportunities; and former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld is anchoring a roundtable on creative financing.
Conference organizers had hoped to wrangle Donald Trump as their keynote speaker. Unfortunately, with this year’s budget restrictions, they only had enough to hire his hair.
From 50 Percent to 20 Percent
Normally a festive gathering, the pall hanging over this year’s Davos summit is palpable.
In a recent survey, just one in five of 1,124 chief executives in 50 nations said they were very confident about prospects for revenue growth in 2009, down from half last year, and more than a quarter said they were pessimistic.
The sentiment was the worst since the accounting and consulting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers began tracking the CEO outlook in 2003.
What began as a financial meltdown 17 months ago has morphed into an economic calamity unseen since the 1930’s. According to the International Monetary Fund, the global economy will slow close to a halt this year as more than $2 trillion of bad assets in the U.S. help sink economies from Russia to the U.K.
Even the Chinese are in dither.
With economic growth nearing a standstill, the Beijing government is not just worried about holding onto its massive cash reserves, but about the growing potential for social unrest among ranks of the rapidly expanding unemployed.
The Chinese Premier, however, will be attending the Davos conference.
Instead of making out checks to underwrite more Western debt, he’ll be setting up a table in the lobby to hock all the Tickle Me Elmos and pirated video games his countrymen were unable to unload at Christmas.
Times are tough all over.
John Cohn is a senior partner in the Globe West Financial Group[ based in West Los Angeles. He may be contacted at www.globewestfinancial.com
