DAVOS 1 GLOBAL CORPORATE FASCISM IS OUT OF THE CLOSET!!!!
Time for the sack clothe and ashes!
Klaus Schwab speech:
"Develop an ideology of perpetual renewal" which is globality [not sovereignty] which includes the death of distance [Internet] , and the death of traditional structures...need common moral and ethical standards."
Tony Blair speech
The opening of the 21st century has seen a move away from a very narrow, perhaps selfish individualism towards ideas of belonging, of community, of a self-interest that is mutual. The nature of our world and its challenges mean that nations themselves increasingly need to cooperate more. Politics is going global. We have a chance in this century to achieve an open world, an open economy, and an open global society...I call it a Third Way. It provides a new alternatives in politicson the center and center left but on new terms. We are part of an international community...new search for community locally, nationally, and globally. With it comes a new agenda.
Bill Clinton arrives on Saturday and is expected to discuss his view of globalization which probably is a twin of Tony Blair who is a Vice president of the Socialist International.
The World Economic Forum specializes in blending a mix of cultures, values, and politics as they consider the state of the World.
Greater emphasis on the fact that the nation-state is dead and we much globalize and work together. Workshop on East Timor/Kosovo suggested the end of the nation-state as a way of proceeding in the future.
In a workshop on economic infrastructuremake clear we have to work on the international level in order to succeed financially.
Great emphasis on the third way, one -two hour workshop on it. A number of workshops on corporate governance.
major inclusion of NGOs this year. While in past years, maybe one or two and maybe credentialed, but did not speak and participate actively.
Will be rehash of WTO for sake of agenda in Davos.
NGOS One world International
Friends of the Earth
Greenpeace
Oxfam
World Federalist Move. -
Sir Peter Ustinov
Others Rockefeller Foundation
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
AFL-CIO
Carnegie Corporation
Warren Beatty
Mayor Richard Daley
UN Movers and Shakers Maurice Strong
Gro Harlem Brundtland
James Wolfensohn - WB
Stanley Fischer-IMF
Others: UNDP, INTERPOL,
UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
Int'l Labor Organization
CEOs George Soros
Bill Gates
Ken lay-
William Clay Ford - Ford
Mcdonalds
DeBeers Group
Sara Lee
Mix of cultures, values, politics - all leading to the hegelian dialectic third way
CLINTON ADMINISTRATION
Cabinet Albright-State
Joel Klein-US Asst Atty-General
Richardson-Energy
Daley-Commerce
Summers-Treasury
Eizenstat-US Dept. Treasury
Cabinet-con't Geitner-Asst Treasury
Barchefsky-Trade
Jane Henney- Commissioner -FDA
Frank Loy-Undersec St. for Global Affairs
Gene Sperling-nat'l l Economic Council
Arthur Levitt - SEC Roger Ferguson-VC- Federal Reserve
Congressmen: Berman, Drier, Dunn,l Kolbe, Leach, Markey,
Gov. Whitman (NJ) &
Ridge (PA)
Mayor Daley-Chicago
Sen. Kerry-MA
Former Clinton Advisers : Laura Tyson and Dan Tarullo
KINGS: KING ABDULLAH-JORDAN AND KING HAROLD - NORWAY
Middle East Players
King Abdullah - Jordan AND Yasser Arafat
NUMBERS
33 world leaders
330 sessions
30th meeting
Ideas presented to lead the world via CEO's - whose financial power exceeds that of most developing countriesto dispense with the individual country which is a hindrance to peace, prosperity, and businesss.
Middle east peace negotiations will take place on the slopes of the Alps as King Abdullah of Jordan, Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Barak meet with Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright during the 6 day World Economic Forum which begins today. On Saturday President Clinton will make a keynote speech Yearly 1000 chief executives from key global corporations meet with political leaders from around the world and from the United Nations to determine the state of the world.
Joan Veon
USA Radio NewS
Davos Switzerland
JV: Question to Abby Cohen
Miss Cohen, given our high trade deficit which we are told is unsustainable, my question is, Is it really? Given things which I have been looking at. (1) the shift of borrowing from the government to the private sector to corporations, (2) the shift in production from corporations in America to overseas where it is cheaper and it gives them more "EVA" , (3) the fact that there has been a political shift in our government through downsizing, privatization, and public-private partnerships, so given those three things, is our high level of trade deficit, really that high?
COHEN: THAT THIS A WONDERFUL QUESTION AND A VERY PERCEPTIVE ONE. Let me see what I can add, as I mentioned in this mornings session, we believe that the fact that the United States has a growing trade deficit is a symptom rather than anything else. The fact that we are strong and have a domestic economy that is growing is a key reason why we are drawing imports from other nations and many of our trade partners are not yet strong enough to return the favor. So let's start with that notion. The question also points out that there may be some technology and numerical reasons why the trade deficit looks as big as it does. I would re-iterate that point. There are many people in the government who believe that we are dramatically overestimating our trade deficit. The key reasons is that we don't really count our exports. I this may seem very strange to you but we do a much better job of counting our imports than counting our exports and many people believe that we are missing at least 10% of our exports. This seems to be a particular problem when things are exported on airplanes, which includes many high-valued items. The other reason why there is some problem with data collection is that we are increasingly importing from ourselves to the extent that U.S. companies have done foreign direct investment into other nations, producing goods there and then importing them back to the United States which counts as an import , even though it is a U.S. company for whom we are importing. We have been aware of this problem for many, many years with regard to Canada and things have been done to try and straighten out those trade accounts while the trade accounts from other nations remain highly suspect from a mathematical point of view.
Mr. Ken Curtis - Goldman Sachs
The Japanese play such a role with financing this non-existent debt and I would like to comment on whether it is an existing debt and if it will be a problem, especially with regard to a disruption in the Japanese economy. It is really interesting, the Japanese have a weak economy and a big surplus; if they have a strong economy, they would have a big surplus.. America has a strong economy, and a big deficit, if they have a weak economy, they would still have a big deficit. It just gets bigger. There is something bigger happening than these numbers. Another way of looking at it to measure is to look at it is to look at the capital account, and the net import and net export accounts. After all, balance of payments have to balance like an accounting statement. The U.S. Capital requirements have continued to increase. There will be $1B in aid this year .
What I am worried about at this moment is not inflation but because of the excess capacityhigh unemployment and other reasons, there is an insufficient amount of savings as we see real interest rates go up. As long as we have companies which are innovating so aggressively and dynamically that we are creating more and more value, faster than real interest rates are going up. That's fine but if starts to slow, then obviously we entere into a period of much bigger volatility than in the last few months. I think there is a question market out there that would be a question mark, a big one.
Question: How far do central banks have to go how much is too much at what point, particularly in Asia does rising interest rates begin to affect the recovery and turnaround.
Abby: In the U.S. you are absolutely correct. There is the presumption that the Federal Reserve will be raising interest rates... tape turned over and I lost it. So we don't hink that a rise from the Fed will come as a surprise. Don't start clock but from several months when markets began to anticipate that the Fed would take action October, 1999. You also raised another point and that is that the Federal Reserve does not have the same sensitivity in its policy makers that it might have had previously. For example with Regulation Q which was disbanded years ago. The Fed is aware and one of the reasons why they monitor so carefully, not just monetary but measures of economic activity in the United States.
Mr. Courtis
If you look at bonds, they have been cheap If the S&P goes up 8% and bonds are 6 « - 6 3/4%. My sense is that the next big move in capital markets will be bonds. That will come as bonds move in one direction since the 8th of October. Offsetting that could be the trouble that Japan finds itself in. When the authorities are obliged to start aggressively monetizing their debt, moving up yield curve which will put more and more long term liquidity in the market. At that time a large amount of money will leave Japan at that point interest rates will start to come down again because there is so much money available. That would set us off into global markets going higher, helping Japan. So if you put it all together, there are always accidents. We have the underpinnings for a pretty robust 18 months. That does not mean there are not going to be set- backs, we will have set backs that scare the day lights out of us. Basically if you put it together, massive technology momentum and spreading in the global markets, the right monetary policy to help be the high octane fuel the global economy and Europe positioned for an increase with many emerging markets already struggling very efficiently to reposition themselves. The irony was the moment the French decided that 35 hours was enough, the Koreans rolled up their sleeves and decided to work 70 hours a week.
JV Question: You said that we skated pretty close to the brink a year ago, that does not mean we are out of it does it?
Courtis: - the U.S. deficit...
JV; What do you see what is the worst case scenario?
Courtis: what is the biggest risk in the world: AN IMPLOSION IN JAPAN. America has a wonderful economy but we are financing it with other people's money. A lot of that money comes from Japan. Their banking system is on literal implosion.
JV: How long? 18 months?
Man: the Japanese prices will last a decade.