The annual meeting of global tamperers wrapped up in Davos, Switzerland. The Guardian Live Blogged the WEF for those of us without $40,000 to pay to attend.:
Day 1: Britain to hold a referendum on EU membership in 4 years, George Soro sought to end War on Drugs, and global image maker WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell's spoke of "grey swans."
Day 2: Global tamperer Henry Kissinger talked about America's 51st state - "card holding" Israel, unemployment could stress stability, governments should cut business taxes and slash their "bloated welfare state."
Day 3 Colluded tax avoidance is sold as tax planning by Goldman Sachs and governments need to steer financial markets. The male dominated gathering also broached the subject of gender equality. Topless Femen protestors pointed out only 17% of Davos invited attendees are women.
As for future prognostications, somehow US News & World Report missed business tax cuts. Here's my prediction:
While the monied and powerful look to feather their beds, the rest will linger along, on stand by to bail them out of the their next manufactured crisis.
Then there's a U.S. planned surgical strike on Iran, a timely next step after Henry Kissinger's warning on Iran.
Greed and hubris played in Davos for five days. Oddly, The Carlyle Group's David Rubenstein was relatively subdued. He aw-shucked on PEU's doing bigger deals, the size of Dell Computers. Rubenstein was mentioned in the AA Davos list. My guess is Rubenstein was in deal making mode, which would explain why fellow co-founder William Conway traveled to Davos. Rubenstein sells, Conway buys.
If "Foreign policy is economic policy", as stated by Senator and Secretary of State nominee John Kerry, the World Economic Forum is the global incubator for oligarchs. Tamperers ride!
