Associated Press
Britain's political system has been thrown into chaos as the country negotiates a messy divorce from the European Union. Under President Donald Trump, the United States is imposing trade sanctions on friend and foe alike, and the government is paralyzed by a partial shutdown over immigration policy that forced Trump and a high-level U.S. delegation to cancel the trip to Davos.
A year after getting a standing ovation from the
elites at Davos, French President Emmanuel Macron is sinking in the
polls as he contends with "yellow vest" protesters who have taken to the
streets to call for higher wages and fairer pensions. Nationalist
political movements are gaining strength across Europe.
And the economic backdrop is worrying: experts are downgrading their forecasts for global growth this year amid rising interest rates and tensions over trade. "Judging by the state of the world right now 10 years on from the financial crisis, and the dysfunctional state of global politics I would suggest that these annual events have achieved the sum total of diddly squat," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
How times have changed. For most of the past quarter century, the
worldview symbolized by the World Economic Forum — of ever-freer world
trade and closer ties between countries — had dominated. Then came a
backlash from Americans and Europeans whose jobs were threatened by
low-wage competition from countries like China and who felt alienated at
home by wealth inequality and immigration.
In 2016, U.S. voters elected Trump, who advocated restricting immigration and scaling back free trade, and the British chose to leave the EU. "The winners from globalization have had the megaphone," said Paul Sheard, a senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard University's Kennedy School. "The losers have been somewhat silent, but now are starting to express themselves through the ballot box and through the political process."
The Davos confab has always been vulnerable to snark: hedge fund billionaires flying into Davos in fuel-guzzling private jets to discuss the threat of climate change; millionaire CEOs discussing inequality while downing cocktails; endless conversations between people who describe themselves as "thought leaders."
Britain's political system has been thrown into chaos as the country negotiates a messy divorce from the European Union. Under President Donald Trump, the United States is imposing trade sanctions on friend and foe alike, and the government is paralyzed by a partial shutdown over immigration policy that forced Trump and a high-level U.S. delegation to cancel the trip to Davos.
And the economic backdrop is worrying: experts are downgrading their forecasts for global growth this year amid rising interest rates and tensions over trade. "Judging by the state of the world right now 10 years on from the financial crisis, and the dysfunctional state of global politics I would suggest that these annual events have achieved the sum total of diddly squat," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
The
collective worries have sent a shudder through global financial
markets: The Dow Jones industrial average is down nearly 9 percent from
Oct. 3. David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said
the buckling market "represents a lot of anxiety that we're seeing from
the corporate elite who meet at Davos."
In 2016, U.S. voters elected Trump, who advocated restricting immigration and scaling back free trade, and the British chose to leave the EU. "The winners from globalization have had the megaphone," said Paul Sheard, a senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard University's Kennedy School. "The losers have been somewhat silent, but now are starting to express themselves through the ballot box and through the political process."
The Davos confab has always been vulnerable to snark: hedge fund billionaires flying into Davos in fuel-guzzling private jets to discuss the threat of climate change; millionaire CEOs discussing inequality while downing cocktails; endless conversations between people who describe themselves as "thought leaders."
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