Carole Stone

Saturday

Carole Stone

The view from Davos: Man vs machine

From our UK edition

At Davos the choice each day is staggering:  in one single hour I could have gone to any one of nine different debates or workshops. Youth unemployment was a big theme.  Europeans, we were told by Kenneth Rogoff, Prof of Economics at Harvard, are still in grave employment difficulties. The situation in Spain for example is critical, with 50% of its young people unemployed; and if they don’t work for the first four or five years of their working life, their long term earning power is far reduced – along with the taxes they should be paying. The trouble is that as the economies of the world’s nations see productivity rise they also see jobs in decline, just disappearing. So is technological innovation in the 21st century driving jobless growth?

Carole Stone

The view from Davos: Boris Johnson’s economic adviser on infrastructure

From our UK edition

As the speaker for yesterday's Davos British business leaders’ lunch, Boris Johnson had the audience in his hand in his usual colourful way. I grabbed his very new Chief Economic Adviser, Dr Gerard Lyons, former Chief Economist at Standard Chartered, on the way out. How did he think we are doing economically? He told me the last big economic gathering was the IMF last October in Tokyo.  There, he said, the mood about the global economy was pessimistic, but now, three months later, the mood had improved, if only slightly.  There was more confidence about China and the US but still a lot of caution about Europe.

Friday

Carole Stone

The view from Davos: Cameron’s mad to talk about leaving the EU

From our UK edition

‘Cameron’s speech on Europe is badly timed; we must stop this endless European bickering when facing such huge worldwide political challenges’.  That’s the view of Neil Selby, the London-based Director of Executive Education for the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business but who at the moment is, like me, here in Davos. ‘Let’s think instead of the links we can make with East Asia’, he tells me. It’s very disconcerting: while in Britain most columnists and commentators seem to be congratulating Cameron on his big Europe speech, here at Davos there’s no enthusiasm. Most of the people around me think the emphasis was all wrong. At a lunch on East vs.

Thursday

Carole Stone

Much more than a networking event

From our UK edition

What's the point of Davos? This is a question seldom addressed in the reports filed from the five-day "World Economic Forum" which ended on Sunday. Many speeches are made, many issues debated, but it is not a place where decisions are taken. It is not a G20. Manifestos are not launched there. It exists to serve a very particular function: every year for a short period of time it becomes the temporary capital of the globalised world. Top business and political leaders, distinguished academics and journalists - all committed to improving the state of the world - flock there to meet each other, swap ideas and then go home. This year, I went along for my first visit - and I promised to file my own report for CoffeeHouse on what I made of it.