a summary of this repulsive corner of the internets
by va
Here at the World Economic Forum in Davos, we're having a not necessarily guilt-free good time. All the important people are having the hard debates about how much we'll need to sacrifice the planet, or at least the third world, to save the economy. Lest you think it's all business at Davos, though, we're also partying, but, and this is very interesting, not with Indians. India has had all the best parties for the last few years, giving out iPods and such, but this year no one cares about Indian parties because India isn't cool anymore, at least not at Davos.
One fun game we play in Davos is the "Davos Blame Game." It's like spin the bottle, except instead of making out, you get blamed for ruining the global economy. So far we've blamed the regulators, the politicians, the bankers, the risk managers, and the creators of CDOs. So basically a few thousand losers. Oh, and everyone who took out a mortgage. Plus "efficient markets theory"? You can't really single anyone out. Indeed, according to Carlyle Group managing director David Rubenstein, possibly five billion people perpetrated the global recession when no one was looking. Let them all eat cake with their severed heads!
We thought the vice chairman of AIG was going to volunteer to take some heat for being an unsporting, economy-wrecking fellow. He admitted Nouriel Roubini turned out to be right about everything! Except that doesn't mean you can "blame" AIG for losing all the money, because the problem is systemic. But it was really nice of the vice chairman to come to Davos at all, considering he represents one of the girly leper companies that got a bailout, and he might have expected a scolding.
But really, there's no scolding in Davos. Or it's very rare, and shocking when it happens. So far, not a single person has thrown a chair at a banker, or anyone else. Mostly it's very polite here, except for when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out during Israeli President Shimon Peres's talk on "Here Again Is Why We Did That To Gaza." All who looked on were aghast at Erdogan's supreme violation of Davos civility. It is accepted in Davos that you let the man explain why Israel did that to Gaza, no need for theatrics! But Erdogan explained that it was he who was the victim of incivility, as Peres talked on and on for a long time. Oh. Well, we report, you decide whether it's news.
So this has been interesting. Why is Davos interesting, for example to the media? The media cover Davos because there are a lot of media people here at (in?) Davos, as well as interesting rich people, which is nice because it's hard for the media to find rich people most of the time. And this year it's extra interesting because there might not be such a Davos next year. Or a media!
Digested read, digested: Let's pretend it's a Victims' Ball and maybe everyone will think the Terror came and went.