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  • Wall Street Bigshots: Conspicuous By Their Absence

    Daniel Gross | Jan 28, 2009 07:59 PM

    At a large mid-day session hosted by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo – think of a combination of the old Phil Donahue show and a hanging party – groups of Davosers (Davosites?) sat around tables and tried to affix blame for the debacle. The group was asked to assess questions such as: What was the greatest market failure? And what was the greatest regulatory failure. There was a lot of talk about failed models and regulatory regimes with poor incentives. But there was little talk of who was to blame.

    At one point, somebody stood up and said, “It’s intriguing nobody is to blame. In other industries, there are consequences if you make toxic products that hurt people. Policy makers need to make it clear that there are serious consequences for that type of behavior.”

    Big applause!

    And yet aside from the odd mention of Alan Greenspan and an oblique reference to Robert Rubin, the former Treasury Secretary who became a senior executive at Citigroup, there was little talk of individual players who bore responsibility. Of course, you can make the case that the people who caused the damage have been punished: they didn’t’ get to go to Davos this year. Last year, Davos was thick with investment bankers and hedge fund managers. This year, the only true Wall Street bigshot I’ve seen is Stephen Schwarzman of the Blackstone Group.

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  • It's OK, We're With The Government

    Michael Freedman | Jan 28, 2009 11:01 AM
    One of the big themes emerging from the World Economic Forum this year is the reemergence of the state. Wall Street titans are noticeably missing here and forum promoters boast of the record number of heads of state and government in attendance. But if these folks are meant to come up with solutions to the financial mess, one striking problem keeps emerging: they are not trusted by the electorate. Ukraine faces one of the steepest drops in economic growth in all Europe, while its president, Viktor Yushchenko, reportedly suffers from something on the order of a 2 percent approval rating. (He apparently bowed out of coming to Davos at the last minute; draw your own conclusions as to why.) In a panel on the state of Europe, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers said his country is going to go from 12 percent growth in 2007 to a 5 percent drop this year. According to one recent report, "the Latvian government's approval ratings have dropped to 10 percent, the worst in the EU," and Latvians have already taken to the streets in violent protest. The question now, for countries both small and large, is just how much time governments have to start turning things around before things start to turn ugly. Aside from the possibility of more widespread protests, the big fear voiced here in Davos is a turn to populism, protectionism and beggar-thy-neighbor policies, which may have a short term political benefit, but will only worsen the underlying economic problems. More
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  • LOOKING FOR THE GREEN

    Daniel Gross | Jan 28, 2009 09:49 AM
    Every year, Davos is about the green (i.e. money). In recent years, with the rise of eco-consciousness, alternative energy, sustainability, and concerns about global warming, it’s also been about the other type of green (i.e. the environment). Last year,... More
  • Looking for Mr. Goodnews -- 2

    Stefan Theil | Jan 28, 2009 02:18 PM
    As Dan Gross posted on this blog yesterday, optimistic CEOs are going to be hard to find at Davos this year. How hard is what PricewaterhouseCoopers tried to answer last night with their traditional pre-Davos release of the Annual Global CEO Survey .... More
  • PRE-DAVOS BLOGGING

    Daniel Gross | Jan 28, 2009 06:16 AM
    The Davos experience starts long before you enter the rarefied (literally, Davos is about 5000 feet above sea level) of the crowded ski resort. The woman sitting next to me, who was carrying the latest issue of Newsweek , chattering in Spanish on two... More