The audio backing track to the close of the WEF 2012 was the sound of scurrying journalists looking for an angle. There was no outstanding character, story or theme, so the media did the decent thing and squeezed 500 words of wrapper copy out of that fact and filled out colour pieces with celebrity names and party details as if they were gossip diarists for the week.
However, if there was no outstanding take-away, the background thrum was plain enough: the collapse of all (or many) member states in the Eurozone and the possibility of yet more doom and gloom about the global economy. There was much fretting about Portugal following Greece into farce and tragedy although — sensibly, given the fact that the original failure in international banking came as an eyebrow-raiser to “economics experts” the world over — nobody was going out on a limb to make hard predictions.
On the plus side, there was hope that globalisation will balance more local failures in Europe. We all know about China and India (‘Chindia’) or the superset of outperformers that includes Brazil and Russia (‘Bric’), but what of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey (MIKT) or even Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt and Turkey (‘CIVET’). Potential saviours of capitalism as we know it or opportunity to create daft neologisms? You decide.
This economic elephant was so big that even Prince Andrew couldn’t miss its presence on an expensive table in his Klosters chalet. No longer a formal trade envoy, HRH still managed to host a reception where he mocked the fortunes of debt-laden rivals and suggested that the UK was, by contrast, “open for business”, according to reports. Clearly, when it comes to crass statements replete with heavy-handed humour, the apple in the Windsor family did not fall far from the tree. As the cute picture caption writers of the Daily Mail noted, he then spent six hours “on the piste”. See what they did there?
The lack of starriness was clearly a worry for many writers hoping to build bridges between the business pages (grey men with large bellies wearing suits) and celebrity pages (beautiful people with no bellies wearing sunglasses). Mick Jagger did in the end show up (after saying he would show up and then saying he would not show up) but only for a private meeting. Similarly, Bill Clinton — ‘Davos man’ as the BBC’s Tim Weber described him so aptly — was there, but not at the main conference. Is this the new trend: to attend but not attend? Certainly both Jagger and Clinton are experts at leaving them wanting more. It was enough to have journalists wishing Bono would appear. Almost.
Interestingly, WEF proper was attended by Chelsea Clinton, prompting the thought (here, at least) that another Clinton could yet make a bid for the White House.
So that was another year at Davos as the billionaires and Next Big Things packed up their tents and left a small town to return to its skiing and fondue.
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