Air of realism blows through Davos after the pessimism of 2009

[CHIMO]

Davos used to be the place where the masters of the universe came for a bit of R&R with their trophy wives. They would chew the fat, cut a few deals, nod wisely as a tame politician paid homage to the orthodoxies of de-regulation, privatisation and globalisation, perhaps do a bit of skiing.

The World Economic Forum has not been like that for some time. Two years ago, there was concern that the seizing up of financial markets in the summer of 2007 was the start of something really nasty.

By Davos 2009 it was clear that the fears were justified and that the banking crisis during the Autumn of 2008 had brought the global economy to the brink of depression. The bankers wandered around the ugly concrete conference centre in a state of bemusement.

This year the mood was different. Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered said that if 2009 was marked by pessimism, 2010 was the year of realism.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/01/davos-global-recession-financial-crisis

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. They needed the wake-up call n/t