Business leaders have begun the World Economic Forum annual meeting in predictably buoyant mood. A global survey of chief executives published by PricewaterhouseCoopers here in Davos found that 90 per cent of respondents expect higher revenues this year and a similar number predict rising revenues for the next three years.
That sentiment was largely echoed by leading economists and policymakers here at the WEF meeting, though there were some notable dissenters. Laura Tyson, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley predicted another "Goldilocks" year for the world economy - not too hot, not too cold, but just right - and insisted fears of an economic slowdown in the US had been overdone.
Her views were echoed by Jacob Frenkel, vice-chairman of the AIG and a former head of the central bank of Israel. The doomsters had been proved wrong last year and would likely be proved wrong again, he insisted.
Continued strong growth in Asia, particularly China and India, is widely cited as the main reason for believing the world economy is no longer so dependent on the American locomotive as it used to be - a point of view which tunes with the conference's theme of "The Shifting Power Equation". A milestone was passed last year, Ms Tyson noted, as in real purchasing-power parity terms the emerging markets became more than half of the world economy.
Yet she also believed there was encouraging evidence of a healthy rebalancing within the US economy too. Consumption and housing were becoming less important, trade and investment more so.
This was not a view shared by Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics in the US. He predicted a hard landing for the US economy, with the housing downturn yet to run its full course, and eventually spilling out into construction, manufacturing and consumption. He also strongly refuted the idea that the world economy had "decoupled" from the US.
As evidence that a full-blown housing recession in the US was looming, Mr Roubini pointed to the fact that 16 sub-prime lenders had already gone under since the housing slowdown began. He predicted the process would end in a full-blown credit crunch.
Yet Mr Frenkel insisted the growing depth, size and sophistication of the financial markets, as well as improvements in economic policymaking, had brought about a new stability in the world economy, which countered the effect of shocks.
One theme likely to dominate discussion here was the growing inequality, both within nations and between nations, being brought about by globalisation.
One leading academic here, Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University, thought the level of political discourse on rising inequality was "way too low". He believed the tax system had to become more progressive to avoid the possibility of a political backlash from those disadvantaged by globalisation.
This is the web site for the politicos and corporates currently schmoozing each other in Davos. _________________ The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:13 pm Post subject: Davos - World Economic Forum 2009
"I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak," Mr Erdogan shouted before marching off the stage in front of Mr Peres, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and an elite audience of ministers and international officials.
In the debate, Mr Erdogan was cut off as he attempted to reply to Mr Peres.
Many of the casualties in Gaza have been children, doctors say
Earlier the Turkish Prime Minister had made an address himself, describing Gaza as an "open-air prison".
When the audience applauded Mr Peres, he said: "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. You killed people. And I think that it is very wrong."
The moderator, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, had given him a minute to reply, then asked him to finish, saying that people needed to go to dinner....
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:45 pm Post subject:
.......Live television footage showed crowds waving Palestinian and Turkish flags at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport while chanting slogans supporting the prime minister. Banners proclaimed Erdogan the "delegate of the oppressed" and said: "Let the world see a proper prime minister." The passions reflected widespread anger about the Gaza war in Turkey, a secular nation whose population is mostly Muslim.
While Erdogan, facing municipal elections in March, seemed to have secured a generally favorable reaction among Turks, some newspaper coverage criticized him for the way he handled his conversation with Peres at a gathering accustomed to more diplomatic exchanges. "The Davos spirit is dead," said a headline in the mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper......
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:44 pm Post subject:
No answer from BBC's Robert Peston.
No answer in Brown government.
No answer in The Economist
No answer in the Financial Times.
Could it be we are being duped into thinking there is no answer?
No answer at Davos forum to global meltdown
By EDITH M. LEDERER – 10 hours ago
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Mired in indecision and uncertainty, the world's foremost gathering of the best and brightest in government and business failed to come up with any new plan to stem, much less reverse, the global financial meltdown.
The five-day World Economic Forum in this Swiss alpine resort wrapped up Sunday in the same atmosphere of doom and gloom that it began, with a realization that the depth of the crisis is still unknown and the solution remains elusive.
"Everybody's lost in Davos," said Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
"No one seems to have a clear understanding of how big this crisis is and what we need to do to get out of it." he told AP. "My own view is that you really need to do a fundamental reexamination of the whole global system to see what went wrong, and nobody here is yet ready to ask these kinds of fundamental questions in Davos."
There was widespread agreement that there's plenty left to do, starting at the April meeting of leaders of the 20 largest economies in London.
"Now the hard work begins," the forum's founder, Klaus Schwab, said, calling for a redesign of the global systems of banking, financial regulation and corporate governance.
Cautioning that the G20 wouldn't be able to solve all the issues, Schwab announced that in a few weeks the forum would start a "Global Redesign Initiative" which he said was supported by almost every world leader who attended this year's forum, from China's Premier Wen Jiabao to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Previous celebrity guests such as Angelina Jolie, Sharon Stone and Bono were not invited to this year's forum and the spotlight fell instead, on world leaders like Wen, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the few bankers who showed up.
The most talked-about world leader — President Barack Obama — didn't come to Davos, but many here had advice on what he should do on issues ranging from the financial crisis to promoting Mideast peace and dealing with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Tensions over the recent war in Gaza flared, with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stalking off the stage after a moderator insisted on cutting off his attempt to respond to Israeli President Shimon Peres' impassioned defense of Israel's air and ground attack.
Business and government leaders blamed the United States for starting the financial crisis that is turning into a global recession.
"Davos just sort of encapsulates the broader global debate," said Stephen Roach, chairman of investment bank Morgan Stanley in Asia and one of the few to warn last year of the global ramifications of the U.S. sub-prime mortgage problem. "We're now moving into the ugliest phase of every crisis, the blame game."
"Wall Street made mistakes. Regulators made mistakes. Rating agencies made mistakes. Central banks made mistakes. Politicians made mistakes — we all did it," Roach told The Associated Press. "So let's be careful that we don't let this blame game get out of hand."
Last year at Davos, there was a widespread belief that the major emerging economic powers — China, India, Russia and Brazil — could survive a slowdown or recession in the United States because of their growth potential. But that has proved to be wrong, many said.
John Chipman, head of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, told the AP that no session in Davos examined "the links between the global economic downturn and financial difficulties, and the prospects for geopolitical conflict and conflict resolution."
"Intuitively, one would think that with the current economic situation, there would be countries whose social stability would be a threat unless they were able to maintain growth levels," he said, citing China as one example.
China's Wen forecast 8 percent economic growth this year, and India's trade minister, Kamal Nath, forecast a 7 to 7.5 percent growth rate, but some economic experts here were skeptical that either would be reached.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and the father of microcredit, saw a silver lining in the financial crisis.
"It's not just disappointment and frustrations," he told AP. "This is the greatest moment we have because things need to be changed, it's as simple as that. We don't want to go back to the same normalcy that we're coming from. We will create a new normalcy which will stay and keep on moving and change the world."
Davos Delegates in ‘Denial’ as $25 Trillion of Wealth Vanishes
By A. Craig Copetas and Christine Harper
Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Regret is cheap for some delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Redemption for their role in the worst economic wreck since the Great Depression comes at a steeper cost.
“Nobody in Davos wants to get near a negative like redemption,” said Robert Dilenschneider, chief executive officer of the Dilenschneider Group, a public relations firm in New York. “But the truth is that everyone here is part of the problem, and the public will soon begin demanding a pound of flesh.”
“No banker or businessman wants to take responsibility,” said Dilenschneider, who counts 40 Davos delegates as clients, their identities shielded by confidentiality agreements. “It’s their view that everybody else did something wrong.”
Questions about responsibility, blame and contrition hang in the cold mountain air at the glitzy Alpine resort this week like so much exhaled breath. With $1 trillion of bank losses and $25 trillion of market value gone missing since the start of the financial crisis, there’s much to account for.
“There’s a ‘Great Gatsby’ quality to Davos,” said Niall Ferguson, a professor of history at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, referring to the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. “When people look back at this gilded age, I’m sure there will be images of the investment bank parties at Davos, just as people looked back at flappers after the 1920s. People are still in denial.”
Ferguson, author of “The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World,” and a first-time Davos delegate, said “There’s a sense of ‘let’s have the party anyway,’ and ‘let’s talk about the post-crisis world,’ as though that could be soon.”
‘Stupid Things’
At a panel on leadership yesterday morning before hosting a reception with champagne and canap s at the Hotel Europe Piano Bar, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon expressed frustration at those who seek to pin all the blame on bankers.
“I take full blame for all the American banks and all the things they did,” said Dimon, 52, the only CEO of a major U.S. financial institution to attend the conference this year, adding that he knows that’s what people want to hear.
Regulators, he said, should share some of the blame.
“God knows, some really stupid things were done by American banks,” Dimon said. “To policy makers, I say where were they? They approved all these banks.”
Stephen Green, chairman of London-based HSBC Holdings Plc, also criticized regulators at a panel about capitalism on Wednesday. Green, 60, a Church of England lay minister who has written a book about reconciling a life in banking with his belief in God, called for “an overhaul of the regulatory environment.” He also talked about the need for self-regulation, saying that “no amount of rules is going to enforce good behavior.”
‘Everybody Participated’
At a press conference on Jan. 28, he dodged the question of personal responsibility, saying only that “the banking industry” has “something to apologize for.”
One Davos regular, Washington-based Carlyle Group’s managing director David Rubenstein, said he thinks a key issue at this year’s gathering is “who is at fault.” Yet Rubenstein, who was saying at Davos two years ago that the outlook for leveraged buyouts was “very robust,” says responsibility shouldn’t be tied only to him or his industry.
“There are six billion people on the face of the earth, and probably about five billion participated in what went on,” Rubenstein said in an interview. “Everybody participated in some way or shape or form.”
No Innocents
Ruben Vardanian, CEO of Russian investment bank Troika Dialog Group, said just saying sorry is not enough.
“Our values became miserable,” Vardanian said. “We are all guilty, and the scope of attrition is large.”
Suzanne Nora Johnson, a former vice chairman at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and a director of American International Group Inc., took a similar view: She said there are no innocents walking Davos’s icy streets.
“There’s no immunity in any sector,” says Johnson, who heads the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Finance and Business. “No one did a good job.”
Spreading the blame around is one thing; whether bankers are ready to atone for their actions is another.
Abu Eesa Niamatullah, executive director of the Cheadle Mosque in Manchester, England, who is in Davos to tend the spiritual needs of global business leaders, says Islam calls its cleansing process “expiation” and that he doesn’t expect any takers.
Redemption
“Bankers don’t want redemption for the moral wrongs they’ve committed against humanity,” said Niamatullah. “Redemption is a heavy word for Davos Man because remorse must come with sincerity and the desire to atone for the transgression. There are no sincere acts of sorrow in Davos.”
That may be because Davos has no time for redemption, says Barry Gosin, CEO of Miami-based global real estate firm Newmark Knight Frank.
“If a shark bites your leg off while swimming in the ocean, can you condemn the shark? This was not an intentioned plan to destroy the world. Wall Street was designed to make money.”
If atonement is difficult, retribution may prove “brutally difficult,” Starwood Capital Group CEO Barry Sternlicht said in an interview in Davos. As Sternlicht sees it, “everyone wants a head, and that’s not reasonable. To do that, you’d need to take out the top 20 executives at the 300 biggest financial firms.”
Humility, Transparency
The forum’s chief redemption officer, John DeGioia, hasn’t figured out how to make the moral component a useful part of any economic stimulus package.
“This moment requires a real humility about the fact that we built these systems and are responsible for them,” says DeGioia, president of Georgetown University in Washington and head of the forum’s Global Agenda Council on Society and Values. “None of us has demonstrated the leadership required and humility necessary to respond to the depths of this crisis.”
John Studzinski, a 52-year-old senior managing director of Blackstone Group Inc., the New York-based private equity firm, says Davos delegates need more than humility.
“People can’t be transparent until they start being transparent with themselves,” Studzinski said.
To contact the writer on the story: A. Craig Copetas in Paris at ccopetas@bloomberg.net.
Elite members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, recently considered a proposal for a new global television network to usher in a state of “global governance.” The concept strikes some as authoritarian, even totalitarian. But the parent company of Fox News was one of the sponsors of this year's gathering.
The media proposal, which was included in “The Global Agenda 2009” report, is to create “a new global network” with “the capacity to connect the world, bridging cultures and peoples, and telling us who we are and what we mean to each other.” Several prominent U.S. media figures signed on to the alarming and controversial proposal.
Isn’t it nice that we might have a TV network telling us “who we are?” And “what we mean to each other?” Perhaps we will learn that we are global citizens. Perhaps a global leader of some sort will tell us that. Who might that be?
This proposal doesn’t come from a fringe organization. The WEF is an exclusive club of very rich and powerful people from around the world. It describes itself as “an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.”
_________________ Currently working on a new website
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 9:43 pm Post subject: 27-31Jan - DAVOS - World Economic Forum
Davos meeting to discuss global economy, climate, Haiti
(Xinhua) - Updated: 2010 Jan 21
GENEVA: Discussion of the global economic situation, climate change and the rebuilding of quake-hit Haiti would headline the Davos meeting later this month, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said on Wednesday.
The Geneva-based organization said its annual meeting in the Swiss skiing resort would draw more than 2,500 leaders from more than 90 countries, representing business, government, civil society, academia and the media. The overall theme of this year's meeting is "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild".
After the global financial and economic crisis, the world had fundamentally changed, said Profesor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of WEF, at a press conference. He said the world also faced a social crisis, one feature of which was the rising number of jobless people.
"We have to look at the meeting in the context of what's happening in the world ... and we see, clearly, that the present system of global cooperation is not working sufficiently," Schwab said.
"So we want to look at all issues on the global agency in a systematic, integrated and stragetic way, and we want to address in particular the issue of global cooperation. This is the reason why our annual meeting this year is tailored around the need to rethink, redesign and rebuild," he added.
According to WEF officials, more than 200 working sessions will be held during the January 27-31 meeting. The three big issues to be discussed include the global economic situation, the world negotiations on climate change and international cooperation in general.
Major topics include the new role of the United States and China, the growth of Latin America, the eurozone economy, the future of Africa, the situation in the Middle East, the rebuilding of Afghanistan, and the prospects of an East Asia Community.
The future of Haiti in the aftermath of its devastating earthquake will also be on the agenda. "We hope that we can present a major common effort to the world community, showing the corporate global citizenship in Davos," Schwab said.
The participants will include more than 1,400 top-level executives from the world's leading companies, some 30 heads of state or government, more than 60 government ministers and more than 100 top officials from international organizations and nongovernmental organizations.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/2010-01/21/content_9351814.htm _________________ www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org www.rethink911.org www.patriotsquestion911.com www.actorsandartistsfor911truth.org www.mediafor911truth.org www.pilotsfor911truth.org www.mp911truth.org www.ae911truth.org www.rl911truth.org www.stj911.org www.v911t.org www.thisweek.org.uk www.abolishwar.org.uk www.elementary.org.uk www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149 http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
https://37.220.108.147/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:16 pm Post subject:
One RT eyewitness reporting that the bomb appeared to have been in a suitcase which was being held by a man some distance away who had his back to the eyewitness.
Joined: 13 Sep 2006 Posts: 2568 Location: One breath from Glory
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 12:34 am Post subject:
Quote:
Russian investigators on Monday found a head of "Arab appearance" that is presumed to have belonged to the suicide bomber responsible for setting off a Moscow airport blast, Interfax reported
How presumptuous and racist can you get- just because it was of Arab appearance its presumed to be the suicide bomber. There were at least 34 other bodies _________________ JO911B.
"for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places " Eph.6 v 12
PM Netanyahu sent a letter to the President of the Russian Federation
Prime Minister's Office website, 24 January 2011
Quote:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, and to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, strongly condemning the heinous terrorist attack in Moscow. He conveyed the condolences of the people of Israel to the families of the victims, and assured the people of Russia that Israel stands with them in the war on terror which threatens all civilized people.
If it was a suicide bomber then they were probably under some kind of mind control.
This has to be the work of Zionists...blaming Arabs again.
Divide and rule, divide and rule! _________________ "The likelihood of one individual being right increases in direct proportion to the intensity to which others are trying to prove him[her] wrong."
- - Harry Segall
"The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves." Lenin 1917
PM Netanyahu sent a letter to the President of the Russian Federation
Prime Minister's Office website, 24 January 2011
Quote:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, and to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, strongly condemning the heinous terrorist attack in Moscow. He conveyed the condolences of the people of Israel to the families of the victims, and assured the people of Russia that Israel stands with them in the war on terror which threatens all civilized people.
.
Yes, how predictable is this! They're stepping up the game this year...to coincide nicely with the 10th anniversary of 9/11. _________________ "The likelihood of one individual being right increases in direct proportion to the intensity to which others are trying to prove him[her] wrong."
- - Harry Segall
"The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves." Lenin 1917
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:48 pm Post subject:
Private military company contract... timed to coincide with the opening of the 2011 World Economic Forum in Davos?
No talks with terrorists - Putin
Topic: Suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport
RIA Novosti. Alexey Drujinin - 16:50 26/01/2011
Russia will not hold any talks with terrorists, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday in the wake of the terrorist attack in Moscow's busiest Domodedovo International Airport earlier in the week.
"It is necessary to fight mercilessly with terrorism and extremism," Putin said.
The premier also said the preliminary information showed the Domodedovo blast was not linked to Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya.
The story goes into a little detail about how Security Partners Ltd., the ICTS Europe subsidiary in Russia was going to assist with 'security' at Domodedovo airport.
The SAME ICTS that on 9/11 helped those MOSSAD agents, made up to look like Arabs, onto several flights.
The SAME ICTS that let the 'Shoe Bomber,' Richard Reid board.
The SAME ICTS that sent a 'sharp-dressed man' to help out the Christmas day 'underwear bomber' board a flight, with no money and NO PASSPORT.
Surely this can't be related to Russia getting ready to recognize a Palestinian state, could it?
Would Israel be so low, sneaky and murderous as to use a FALSE FLAG to accomplish their goals?
Fatah official Nabil Sha'ath tells Al-Hayat newspaper that Dmitry Medvedev will affirm Soviet Union's 1988 recognition of a Palestinian state during West Bank visit. By Barak Ravid
Israeli officials fear that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will announce on Tuesday during a visit to Jericho that Russia recognizes a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.
Officials became concerned following an interview given by Fatah official Nabil Sha'ath to the Al-Hayat newspaper on Tuesday. Sha'ath said that Medvedev would affirm the Soviet Union's 1988 recognition of a Palestinian state - a recognition that was based on the declaration of independence made by Yassir Arafat that year.
Such a move would be significant, particularly since Russia is a member of the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiatiors.
Source: Haaretz
Either ICTS is the sloppiest 'security' firm in the world, or...
UPDATE
It's Odigo story, told in Russian
Russia's security agencies received a warning ahead of today's blast of a possible attack on a Moscow airport, news agencies reported. "We received information that in one of Moscow's airports a terrorist attack could possibly take place," a source told RIA Novosti.
Why would a 'terrorist' warn those ahead of time that he/she/they were going to blow something up, since that diminishes the unknown, which if part of terror's MO?
Unless they wanted to warn some 'Chosen Ones,' like the REAL 9/11 perps did when they sent a message to the Israeli-owned instant messaging company Odigo in NYC to let them know to get the hell out of Dodge, the 'MOSSAD Flying Aerial Circus' was going to pay New York a visit.
Two employees of Odigo, Inc., an Israeli company, receive warnings of an imminent attack in New York City about two hours before the first plane hits the WTC. Odigo, one of the world’s largest instant messaging companies, has its headquarters two blocks from the WTC. The Odigo Research and Development offices where the warnings were received are located in Herzliyya, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
The two employees claim not to know who sent the warnings.
He said the employees did not know the person who sent the message, but they traced it to a computer address and have given that information to the FBI.” [Washington Post, 10/4/2001] Odigo gave the FBI the Internet address of the message’s sender so the name of the sender could be found. [Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Hamburg), 9/26/2001] Two months later, it is reported that the FBI is still investigating the matter, but there have been no reports since.
Source: History Commons
Herzliya, Israel just happens to be the HDQ's of that murderous outfit of assassins; thieves, liars, throat-slitters and baby killers, the Israeli terrorist outfit AKA the MOSSAD
Your IP address is like your home address, a real physical location that would be easy to find, so why did the FBI sit on the info? _________________ www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org www.rethink911.org www.patriotsquestion911.com www.actorsandartistsfor911truth.org www.mediafor911truth.org www.pilotsfor911truth.org www.mp911truth.org www.ae911truth.org www.rl911truth.org www.stj911.org www.v911t.org www.thisweek.org.uk www.abolishwar.org.uk www.elementary.org.uk www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149 http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
https://37.220.108.147/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/
excerpts from: Medvedev after bombing: Learn from Israel
Russian president orders reform in country's security apparatus following deadly suicide attack at Moscow airport; says Israel should be taken as example. [...]
by Dmitry Prokofyev, Ynetnews, 26 January 2011
Quote:
"What happened Monday shows that obviously there were security breaches. [...] " said Medvedev, suggesting that Israel's security procedures be used as an example. "They have many security posts and meticulous inspections. The security officers are likely to drive you insane," he said. [...]
"If security arrangements at Domodedovo Airport were sufficient as those in the United States or Israel, the attack could have been prevented," noted a spokesperson on behalf of the Russian State Committee for the fight against terrorism. [...]
In an interview published by Novye Izvestia newspaper on Wednesday, former head of the Russian Interpol Vladimir Ovchinsky claimed, "The level of terror threat in Russia is higher than that in Israel."
what can one glean from blatant propaganda?
Any translations of Russian news? Hmm thought not lol _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
I'd love to see what RT broadcast in Russia if anything
Maybe it's a tool to help drive divide and conquer at home? _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
DAVOS, Switzerland Jan 27 (Reuters) - Left-wing activists claimed responsibility for a minor explosion on Thursday at a hotel in Davos, close to where top executives and world leaders were meeting, but nobody was hurt.
Devin Wenig, CEO of Thomson Reuters' Markets division, was in a breakfast meeting of senior executives at the hotel when the explosion happened.
"A huge boom went off. The whole ceiling lifted. Everyone was convinced it was a bomb," he said. "It took a half hour to reassemble the meeting."
Participants were later told that a boiler had exploded, he added. The Forum's main programme was not disrupted.
"I can confirm that there has been an explosion in a storage room in the basement of the hotel," Thomas Hobi, a spokesman for the local police said. "There has been minor damage but nobody was injured."
Swiss prosecutors said they were investigating the explosion, implying that there might be a criminal motive, but they declined to give further details.
A Reuters photographer said a few police were patrolling outside the building and he could see a broken window but no other damage.
A group calling itself Revolutionary Perspective said in a statement on an activist website it had targeted the luxury Posthotel with a firebomb and said Swiss ministers and representatives of top bank UBS were staying there.
"Our fight against the dictatorship of capital is focused on the social alternative to capitalism: communism," the group said in the statement.
A spokesman for the World Economic Forum (WEF) said police had made two bomb sweeps of the hotel after a threat posted online. The WEF said in a statement that the blast had been caused by a small firework at the back entrance of the hotel.
"The police is investigating this incident. The hotel is fully operational and accessible," it said.
The luxury Posthotel is in the heart of Davos village, a few hundred metres (yards) from the WEF congress centre where hundreds of company heads, central bankers and politicians are meeting.
Larry Elliott and Jill Treanor - The Observer, Sunday 19 January 2014
With the only thing growing fast the gap between rich and poor, this year's economic conclave in Davos could be a gloomy one. Photograph: Alamy
More than 2,500 of globalisation's movers and shakers gather for their annual four-day mountaintop conclave this week, aware that the world is still being shaken by the events of half a decade ago.
When the World Economic Forum met in Davos in early 2009, it was against the backdrop of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers a few months earlier, and a contraction in activity that raised fears of a second Great Depression. Since then, hopes of a quick return to business as usual have been dashed by sluggish recovery, an incomplete repair job on banks, rising inequality, growing political alienation and concerns about extreme weather events and internet meltdown.
Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of the WEF, has told the business executives, academics and government officials attending Davos this year that much remains to be done. "Economic growth patterns, the geopolitical landscape, the social contract that binds people together, and our planet's ecosystem are all undergoing radical, simultaneous transformations, generating anxiety and, in many places, turmoil," he said.
Much also remains to be done if the WEF is to make progress on the gender quotas it set four years ago. Then it told its 100 corporate partners – attracted to the Swiss resort by the opportunities to hammer out business deals behind the scenes – that they could bring a fifth representative only if it was a woman. Yet the percentage of women attending is just 16%.
Saadia Zahidi, head of gender parity and human capital at the WEF, says efforts are being made to push gender up the agenda. This year's theme is "Reshaping the world" and Zahidi points to six sessions, including a key event with Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and the IMF's Christine Lagarde on on 25 January – though many delegates will have left by then.
The issues most likely to crop up during the five days of formal and private sessions include:
Technology
In the year since the last Davos, the world has been convulsed by the online surveillance revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden. The concern at the WEF is that the distrust sown by this has led to a "balkanisation" of the web, with national authorities becoming less willing to co-operate, at a time when the world is vulnerable to a systemic failure. This year's meeting will note that while scientific and technological breakthroughs have the potential to change the world for the better, there is a need to build defences against the increasingly aggressive hackers and the threat of "cybergeddon".
Inequality
Each year, the World Economic Forum surveys 700 of its members to gauge risks to global prosperity over the next decade. This year, the biggest threat was seen as the growing gap between rich and poor. Given that some of the richest people on the planet will be at Davos, meetings are likely to be long on the need to address the problem and short on practical measures, particularly ones that might affect corporate profits or low marginal tax rates for the well-off.
But Schwab says the issue cannot be ducked: "The slowdown is taking place against the backdrop of rising economic inequality, owing to the declining share of national income going to labour, a worldwide phenomenon – resulting from globalisation and technological progress – that poses a serious challenge to policymakers. Systems that propagate inequality, or that seem unable to stem its rise, contain the seeds of their own destruction. But in an interdependent world, there is no obvious solution, as the high mobility of capital fuels global tax competition."
The global economy
Much attention will be paid to the fact that the deepest slump in postwar history has been followed by the weakest recovery. In the past, economies have tended to be booming five years after a recession, but growth has been weak despite low interest rates and money creation programmes. Attention this year will focus on four issues. Can the US "taper" away its QE stimulus without aborting its tepid recovery and triggering a fresh crisis in one of the "fragile five" emerging countries (India, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey and Brazil)? Can China switch to a more liberalised model without a hard landing? Will the eurozone be able to avoid Japanese-style deflation? And will 2014 be the year when Japan emerges from two decades of slow growth and falling prices? Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will give a keynote speech on 22 January, and insiders are expecting an optimistic tone following signs that his stimulus package is working.
Geopolitics
Davos likes to see itself as a mini UN, using the presence of so many leaders to seek progress in some of the world's trouble spots. This year, attention will focus on the Middle East, particularly Syria, and relations between Iran and Israel. Hassan Rouhani, Iran's president will be speaking to the WEF on 23 January. Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and its president, Shimon Peres, will also be in Davos, but will not share a platform with Rouhani. More generally, the WEF believes there is a crisis of global governance, with countries reluctant to co-operate on issues such as climate change and an erosion of trust in politicians caused by the banking crisis.
ON THE GUEST LIST
Aside from the formal events at Davos, the 2,500 delegates get a chance to rub shoulders at exclusive invitation-only cocktail parties and clinch lucrative business deals in a myriad of private rooms and upmarket hotels. Security is tight, which is little surprise given some of the people who are scheduled to turn up.
Heads of state or government David Cameron and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe will be among 40 or national leaders, also including Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his president, Shimon Peres. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, recently injured while skiing, will not be attending.
Central bankers the Bank of England's Mark Carney and the ECB's Mario Draghi.
Business figures Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Bob Dudley of BP, Lakshmi Mittal of steelmaker Arcelor Mittal and Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP. Antony Jenkins of Barclays may run into his predecessor, Bob Diamond.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 10:42 pm Post subject:
On the eve of the forum, the British charity Oxfam released a study documenting the staggering growth of social inequality. Oxfam reported that the richest 85 individuals possess more wealth than the poorest 50 percent of the world’s population—3.5 billion people!
The Davos conference embodies the emergence of a new global financial aristocracy. In attendance at this year’s meeting are 80 billionaires and hundreds of millionaires.
The 44th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) began Wednesday, bringing over 2,000 corporate executives, major investors, government leaders, central bankers and celebrities to the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos.
The annual celebration of wealth and avarice follows a bumper year for the world’s super-rich. Stock prices and corporate profits surged to new record highs, swelling the bank accounts and portfolios of the financial elite, even as austerity measures, wage cutting and layoffs slashed living standards and threw tens of millions more people into poverty.
On the eve of the forum, the British charity Oxfam released a study documenting the staggering growth of social inequality. Oxfam reported that the richest 85 individuals possess more wealth than the poorest 50 percent of the world’s population—3.5 billion people!
The Davos conference embodies the emergence of a new global financial aristocracy. In attendance at this year’s meeting are 80 billionaires and hundreds of millionaires.
The general tone on the opening day was one of “fragile optimism,” according to a survey of attendees. There is a general expectation of more good fortune in 2014. But looming over the festivities there is also fear of the social and political consequences of the naked plundering of society by the elites represented in Davos.
The conference, which goes from January 22 through 25, has officially adopted the title “The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business.” It will draw 1,500 business executives, 48 prime ministers and presidents, and the heads of twenty central banks. US attendees include Secretary of State John Kerry, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Environmental Protection Agency head Gina McCarthy.
Panel discussions on topics such as “Regulating Innovation,” “Closing Europe’s Competitiveness Gap,” “Higher Education—Investment or Waste?” and “Immigration—Welcome or Not?” are sandwiched between galas and parties for the rich and powerful. As the Washington Post quipped, “After absorbing so much info during the day, evenings are your usual party scene, devoted to celebrity-spotting, night skiing and such, and apparently a fair amount of alcohol consumption.”
Davos’ prestigious Belvedere Hotel alone has ordered 1,594 bottles of champagne and Prosecco, as well as 3,088 bottles of red and white wine, according to the BBC, in order to accommodate “320 parties in five days, its 126 rooms crammed with chief executives, prime ministers and presidents.”
The attendees have reason to celebrate. The wealthiest 300 people on the planet saw their net worth grow by $524 billion over the last year, according to Bloomberg News. The Bloomberg article, entitled “Davos Billionaires See Wealth Gains on 2014 Stocks Rally,” noted that Bill Gates was last year’s biggest gainer, having increased his fortune by $15.8 billion to $78.5 billion, recapturing the position of world’s richest person.
The conference was founded in 1971 by German business professor Klaus Schwab, who invited hundreds of corporate executives throughout Europe to what he called the “European Management Forum.” But the event, whose name was changed to World Economic Forum in 1987, came into its own in the first period of political reaction under Reagan and Thatcher, growing in tandem with the redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top.
Among the hundreds of corporate executives at Davos are substantial delegations from banks whose speculative and fraudulent activities triggered the 2008 financial crisis. Goldman Sachs sent eight delegates (including CEO Lloyd Blankfein), Citigroup and HSBC sent seven apiece, and JPMorgan Chase sent six, including CEO Jamie Dimon.
Panelists at a Wednesday forum entitled “Is the International Financial System Safer Now than it was Five Years Ago?” included HSBC Chairman Douglas Flint and Barclays CEO Anthony Jenkins. Barclays paid regulators $450 million in 2012 to settle charges that it illegally manipulated the world’s main interest rate, the London Interbank Lending Rate, or Libor. HSBC paid $500 million to regulators to settle similar allegations and hundreds of millions more to settle charges of drug money laundering.
In its annual “Global Risks” report, the forum listed income disparity as the number one threat, warning that it was the risk “most likely to cause serious damage globally in the coming decade.” WEF chief economist Jennifer Blanke, pointing to the 2011 upheavals in Egypt and Tunisia, commented, “Disgruntlement can lead to the dissolution of the fabric of society, especially if young people feel they don’t have a future.”
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde struck a similar note in an interview with the Financial Times, warning that rising economic inequality “is not a recipe for stability and sustainability.” Pope Francis issued a similar warning.
No one at the conference, however, is proposing any social reforms to ameliorate the plight of the working class or redistribute wealth downwards from the top. On the contrary, the watchword is “structural reform,” a euphemism for stripping workers of all protections, dismantling what remains of the welfare state, and removing all environmental and health and safety rules that restrict corporate profit.
PRINCE Andrew will attend the forthcoming trip to Switzerland despite more lurid headlines surrounding claims he slept with a teenage girl abused by his billionaire American financier friend Jeffrey Epstein.
Published: 15:02, Fri, January 16, 2015By CAMILLA TOMINEY
Will Prince Andrew turn up at the World Economic Forum at Davos
The Duke, 54, is due to represent the Queen at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21 and today Buckingham Palace formally announced the high-profile visit by posting on the Duke's facebook page.
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker has called on the prince to “keep a low profile” rather than attend the global summit while three Labour members of a Commons business committee say they are worried the royal could prove a distraction.
Mr Baker said: "I think it would be helpful if he wasn't going because of the furore which is surrounding him at the present time, which may well be very unfair.”
Davos, for whatever reason, is known as one of the places to see and be seen for celebrities and world leaders alike. Far from being a strait-laced number-crunching event, this year's World Economic Forum sees perhaps the most unusual line-up yet.
The guest list for year's Davos get-together reads like a special collaborative issue between Private Eye, TIME, and Closer magazine. Big-hitters from the worlds of politics and finance, such as Tony Blair, Angela Merkel, Bill Gates and Bank of England governor Mark Carney will be making small-talk over canapes with Peter Gabriel, will.i.am and Prince Andrew. Lucky them.
Here's who's who in the Swiss game of celebrity tombola and exactly why they're there in the first place:
Pharrell Williams
Williams announced his series of Live Earth concerts alongside a slightly bemused Al Gore. The star, who has been a long-time environmental campaigner, told the conference the gigs would mean "[we are] literally going to have humanity harmonise all at once".
Peter Gabriel
He's been a Davos regular since 2004, and the former lead singer and flautist of Genesis hits the distinctly un-rock-n-roll conference to promote his human rights organisation, Witness. We've got everything crossed for a jazz-flute recital.
will.i.am
He's already posted a picture of himself "steady chillin" with Richard Branson, and the Black Eyed Peas frontman is in Switzerland to help promote his new charity. The i.am.angel Foundation aims to boost "education, inspiration and opportunity" by bringing science and technology programmes to underprivileged communities.
will.i.am and Richard Branson will.i.am and Richard Branson "steady chillin" at the World Economic Forum Prince Andrew
The Duke of York is set to host a reception for business leaders on Thursday evening. He is currently subject to underage sex claims by 'slave' Virginia Roberts, which Buckingham Palace emphatically deny, and will reportedly be addressing the allegations during Davos.
Paloma Faith and Aloe Blacc
The pop stars are teaming up to perform at an event hosted by Google at the Hotel InterContinental this evening. So, if you're in town tonight and want to watch some corporate bods do a nervous shoe-shuffle to contemporary music, this is the event for you.
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Andrea Bocelli
The opera singer isn't up in the Swiss mountains to do "Nessun Dorma", but to collect a prize for making the world a better place through music. The Crystal Award has been given the Bocelli for "promoting and supporting national and international projects that foster the overcoming of such barriers and help them to realise their full potential".
Paulo Coelho
The Brazilian author, who wrote worldwide bestselling book The Alchemist, is at the WEF as a UN Messenger of Peace and Special Adviser for the UNESCO Programme on Spiritual Convergences. He's a regular attendee, so presumably won't find the whole celebrity/political crossover too weird.
Some people laughed at my Shemitah predictions last summer. But then many came true and now our TDV newsletter subscribers are laughing all the way to the bank.
Incredibly, the occult information that I relied upon when I made and posted my viral Shemitah video in July has now been turned into a news story by a top reporter for the prestigious UK Telegraph newspaper.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, one of the most famous mainstream economic journalists in the world and a writer for the Telegraph – mouthpiece for the British aristocracy and City of London – has revealed the truth about elite plans for the financial future of the world.
In an article entitled, “World faces wave of epic debt defaults, fears central bank veteran,” the Telegraph tells the world what viewers of our blog and videos already know: The world is being run by secret ancient scriptures that the current elites use as a template to control the economy, financial system and our very lives.
It is very unfair of course. And certainly evil, too, in a profound sense. These people are part of a larger globalist conspiracy that grinds forward, ruining people’s lives, bankrupting businesses and creating, to put it bluntly, slow-motion genocide.
None of this is overtly explained in Ambrose’s article, but he certainly makes the point that things in this weary world are horribly out-of-kilter.
And the individual he is interviewing is William White, former Chief Economist for the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The BIS is perhaps the most important and secretive financial facility in the world. And White was one of its top guys.
This man was at the center of a worldwide web of financial elites. Parts of these societies are occult and have their roots in Sumer, Babylon and Israel… which he points out in the article. He is no joke. He chooses his words carefully. He is sending us a message if we wish to hear it.
Here is the most important part of the article:
“The only question is whether we are able to look reality in the eye and face what is coming in an orderly fashion, or whether it will be disorderly. Debt jubilees have been going on for 5,000 years, as far back as the Sumerians. The next task awaiting the global authorities is how to manage debt write-offs – and therefore a massive reordering of winners and losers in society – without setting off a political storm …”
In my viral Shemitah videos, I explained all this and thousands of you subscribed to our TDV newsletter. We even expanded the newsletter to carry a Shemitah Watch and a Shemitah Solutions section.
Our discovery of Shemitah and the Shemitah end-day has changed everything for us and our subscribers too.
Using Shemitah analysis, I was able to predict the fall collapse that wiped trillions from global stock markets and to develop trades that over the summer made a peak of 4,500% for subscribers by shorting the market through highly leveraged put options.
We’ve developed other option trades since then and on just this last Friday one was up 66.7% and the other 80%. If you’ve been procrastinating about subscribing to our TDV newsletter, you missed out on a 200% gain in less than two weeks in total.
In a recent alert to subscribers we made a recommendation not to sell those options. If we are right about these trades, they’ll gain more than 1,000% from here. We’re going to raise our rates at the end of the month so I hope you subscribe now. Subscribe today here.
Understanding the ongoing Super Shemitah Trend and the current Jubilee year is critical to your financial survival. There are EXTREMELY powerful individuals that use Jewish occult tradition as a template for their financial plans.
That’s what I discovered. That’s what Mr. White is CONFIRMING. He even called it the Jubilee! He is telling us what’s about to happen one way or another. Here’s an additional quote from the article.
The global financial system has become dangerously unstable and faces an avalanche of bankruptcies that will test social and political stability, a leading monetary theorist has warned.
“The situation is worse than it was in 2007. Our macroeconomic ammunition to fight downturns is essentially all used up,” said William White … “Emerging markets were part of the solution after the Lehman crisis. Now they are part of the problem, too …
“Debts have continued to build up over the last eight years and they have reached such levels in every part of the world that they have become a potent cause for mischief,” he said. “It will become obvious in the next recession that many of these debts will never be serviced or repaid, and this will be uncomfortable for a lot of people who think they own assets that are worth something,” he told The Telegraph on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
It is CRITICAL for you as an investor to internalize Mr. White’s message. The financial, economic and monetary world is operating on a Super Shemitah/Jubilee time clock. And the Jubilee year – 2016 – is going to add another layer of chaos. The Shemitah ended in 2015 but this Shemitah was a special one. It is the 7th, of the seven-year cycle that only happens every 49 years, which leads into the Super Shemitah or Jubilee year.
I’ve been hard at work on what I think will be the most important video you watch this year on the Jubilee. (Subscribe to our Youtube channel now to make sure you don’t miss it as soon as it comes out.) I’ve been telling subscribers about many of its facets already.
You can get that information before the video is released, by subscribing to TDV. You can also get access to some of the top financial minds in the world at our upcoming TDV Internationalization and Investment Summit. At the Summit we’ll be going over in-depth solutions on how to protect yourself from what is to come in 2016. You’ll want to stay over for our three-day Anarchapulco Conference as well, which will feature even more in-depth discussions of these issues and many others.
There is a reason why William White mentioned the Jubilee and then referred to Sumer. We live in a kind of Sumerian society. And our overlords have a frame of reference that extends back thousands of years.
We have unlocked the code to their timing… and Mr. White just confirmed it! The Jubilee is real and has the potential for utter chaos and profound crisis this year.
For the last week, mainstream media sites have had headlines such as, “Why are the Markets Crashing?” They don’t have insight into the occult plans of the elite and to them it looks chaotic and confusing. To us it looks pre-planned and obvious. That’s why we’ve been ahead of the curve.
We’ll have much more on the Super Shemitah and Jubilee right here at TDV, in the TDV newsletter and at our upcoming conference.
Mr. White was totally correct when he said, “The only question is whether we are able to look reality in the eye and face what is coming.” Most people prefer to not look truth and reality in the eye… and they will get very hurt in the coming collapse.
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