>I was reading the time report on davo today -- it is a lot of fun to watch the
>leaders of the economic world fighting nastier than gangs on the play ground.
>it restores my faith in social change.
Today's FT reports on Davos...
Financial Times - January 30 1999
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: AL GORE KEEPS HIS HEAD AMID EURO-PHORIA By Lionel Barber in Davos, Switzerland
The Americans have stopped gloating. In Davos, two years ago, the US sat astride the world. The mountain air was thick with talk about America as the sole superpower, the New Paradigm economy and the bull market.
The bull market is still rampant, but this weekend US delegates to the World Economic Forum, the annual gathering of the great and the good in business, politics and intellectual life, are more circumspect.
Even Larry Summers, the pugnacious deputy Treasury secretary, looks uneasy. The aftershocks of the financial crises in Asia, Russia and Brazil, and the consequences for world growth, especially if the US economy slows and Europe fails to pick up the slack, are taking their toll.
Take Al Gore, the US vice-president. There was nothing understated in the way he was introduced to delegates yesterday by Professor Klaus Schwab, the forum's founder, president and impresario-in-chief.
His star turn this year, he said, was "America's brain, heart and soul for the 21st century", the first of a new generation of technology-based leaders.
As the audience cringed, Mr Gore kept his head, but his speech fell short of the address one might have expected from a president-in-waiting.
His call for the elimination of all farm export subsidies sounded like wishful thinking. His promise to press for a new round of global trade liberalisation risks falling hostage to liberal Democrats, many of whom will demand trade protection if, as expected, their votes help to save President Bill Clinton's skin after impeachment.
The Europeans, by contrast, are buoyant. The launch of the euro four weeks ago has done wonders for self-confidence.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, French finance minister, summed up the post Emu mood: "We made it."
Mr Strauss-Kahn says that Europe (translation, France) is winning the debate. Reform of the world's financial institutions, tighter regulation of hedge funds, closer monitoring of capital flows - in each case the arguments have shifted. "There are no more taboos, everything is on the table".
Everything is certainly on the snowclad Davos menu. Apart from the week-long conference's overarching theme - breathtakingly entitled Responsible Globality - discussion groups scattered around town include topics such as: "How can we deal with the casino of global capitalism?"; "Do we need Nature"' "The vanishing European cinema" and "Let's talk about sex".
Those with any stamina left can always try a Davos "nightcap". This is a chance to network with the best and brightest. Pick of the bunch last night? Newt Gingrich, who resigned abruptly last November as speaker of the House of Representatives. He is approachable, but on one condition - "we don't talk about Washington".