My time is increasingly not my own, so I hope I can keep posting at opportune moments. With less than 24 hours to go, the pace is understandably picking up in the Congress Centre.
There are the inevitable last minute flurries of comings and goings. The blizzard hitting the US east coast means some people who were planning to arrive today will only arrive tomorrow. We’re crossing our fingers that this doesn’t affect some of the Thursday sessions. If you find yourself press ganged onto a panel suddenly, a weather affected flight is the probable cause.
We’ve also had two people cancel because of skiing accidents — not here in Davos, but in the Rockies. Who gets to go skiing before making a trip to the Alps?
***More news
There will be few more thoughtful pieces on Davos than Martin Wolf’s scene setter in today’s Financial Times. “None of the readers of this column has much chance of being alive at the end of this century. But suppose, for a moment, one was. What would give most pleasure?
“My answer is simple: that the economic opportunities now available
to a small proportion of humanity would have become available to all.
The question, as the world’s movers and shakers congregate in Davos
for the first meeting of the World Economic Forum this century, is what needs to be done to promote this end.”
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) focuses on the NGOs assembling in Davos. “The social and environmental activists who helped sink last year’s Seattle trade talks are now converging on the ultimate elite party: the World Economic Forum starting Thursday in Davos, Switzerland.”
We’ve added a button on this page to access Moreover.com’s news feed on Davos-related material. Moreover.com is a useful start-up by ex-Financial Times journalist Nick Denton. A good story of what it takes to be successful in the Internet economy: I emailed Nick on Monday night suggesting a Davos feed would be interesting. By Tuesday evening Moreover.com had constructed the special feed. Within an hour my California collaborators at Userland had the button on the page. How many traditional corporations or institutions could match that?
***Late, late news
Advice of the day from Davos: being an economist on the east coast of the US can endanger your health. Two economists cancelled today, Robert Reich and Daniel Tarullo, and one, Jeff Sachs, alerted us that he will be a day late. They all have the flu. How many other economists have been affected? I think we should be told.