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It began a half century ago, in 1971, with the world in a difficult spot. At first, the idea was to learn how European firms could adapt to the new management practices then gaining favor in the U.S.
Within a few years, the U.S. had abandoned the gold standard for its currency, Israel and Arab nations were enmeshed in a war, and a U.S. president was engulfed in a political scandal that would result in his resignation.
Political, business and other elites will gather once again Monday for the World Economic Forum’s 54th annual meeting in the Alpine hamlet of Davos, Switzerland, to tackle the thorniest of problems, from war to inequality to climate change. Now, as in years past, the top issues will include conflict in the Middle East, trust in governmental and business institutions, and climate change. The event includes speeches, dialogues among groups, panels on a variety of topics, and various sidebar conversations and after-hours social gatherings that are often a hot ticket.
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Over the years, the gathering has seen some big names, including sitting U.S. presidents (Bill Clinton and Donald Trump), a former political prisoner (Nelson Mandela), a prophet of climate change (Jacques Yvez-Cousteau) and close-to-countless prime ministers (Tony Blair), corporate titans (Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch) and cultural icons (Bono).
The 2024 event is not lacking in star power, though often famous people who are not listed ahead of time also show up. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, new Argentine President Javier Milei and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are listed as planning to attend.
“I’m looking forward to an opportunity to reunite with global thinkers, to deploy our human capacity to understand the uncertainty we are facing, and to problem solve in that uncertainty,” said Andres Cadena, senior partner of global consulting giant McKinsey.
The forum is not without its own controversy, having been pegged over the years as a haven for globalists and ruling elites. In 2022, Elon Musk famously tweeted that Davos “sounded boring af,” helping fuel questions about whether he had been formally invited or not.
The 2024 meeting comes as populism is on the rise around the world and the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for the White House is Trump, a former president who championed an “America First” agenda in his appearance at Davos in 2018, the same year he set off a trade war with China.
The theme for this year’s meeting is “Rebuilding Trust,” and Gayle Markovitz, lead editor for the World Economic Forum, characterized the program as embodying “a ‘back to basics’ spirit of open and constructive dialogue between leaders of government, business and civil society.
“The goal is to help connect the dots in an increasingly complex environment and provide foresight by introducing the latest advances in science, industry and society,” Markovitz wrote.
That complex environment is embodied in conference themes and includes the advent of artificial intelligence, the fracturing of relationships among global powers and the post-COVID-19 economy. Events also will be livestreamed and information made available on social media.
This year’s conference comes on the heels of a report released Wednesday by think tank The Conference Board detailing findings from a survey of global business leaders, which showed a global economic downturn and inflation are among the top concerns of CEOs worldwide. With Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict raging on, global political instability also topped the list of things keeping corporate leaders awake at night.
Meanwhile, global growth is expected to slow to 2.4% in 2024, according to a report from the World Bank released on Tuesday. Economists said continued high prices and borrowing costs are among the reasons for the weak pace, forecast to be the slowest half-decade of gross domestic product growth in 30 years.
Heightened costs of doing business from rising geopolitical instability, especially in the Middle East, also are a concern.
“Without a major course correction, the 2020s will go down as a decade of wasted opportunity,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank Group’s chief economist.
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