World Economic Forum Meets in Davos; Instability is the Central Theme

Starting on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011, the top, most intellectual and respected minds in the world gathered for one of the most influential meetings of the year: the World Economic Forum. The primary forum guests are the chosen leaders of the Group of Twenty, or G20, the 20 most economically influential nations. One of the things that differentiates this year from past years is the guests.

Rather than a "who's-who" of global money masters, the attendance list is populated by politicians and noted global thinkers. The chief issue about the Egyptian rioting and the Egyptian government's reaction to it by blacking out the entire nation's Internet access and using violence to stop protesters was not on the agenda, even though it affects the entire world, although the planned agenda covers dozens of other world issues as listed on their site.

Major Agenda Issues

One of the other major issues highlighted on the agenda is global business security and the business climate overall. This further highlighted the rioting in Egypt and its immediate implications. The other hot button issue is the global credit market, its current instability and the recent action by the Federal Reserve regarding "Quantitative Easing."

It would seem that this year, more than others in the past, there are two Davos meetings, one devoted to the planned agenda and the other devoted to the moment-to-moment state of the world. The recent Federal Reserve initiative has been criticized by almost everyone, from state economic leadership to the business and banking elite, and it is a big deal at Davos, as the perception is that the issue will weaken the dollar and further destabilize global markets, thus dampening any potential US or worldwide recovery.

More Instability Issues

Instability was also further pushed into the limelight with the recent crisis is Tunisia, in which the President, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, was deposed, further instigating the rioting in Egypt and the Hezbollah government in Lebanon. The continued instability of world currency markets, global business climates, and the stability of governments under pressure are the subjects of conversation. The official agenda lists over 45 issues organized into major themes, such as "Economic Growth," "Environmental Sustainability," "Social Development," "Financial Systems," and "Health for All."

The first two seem to have been the most active subjects based on the number of issues in those categories, and the opening day speeches focused on global dialog and management of the issues. The other subject discussed on day one was Russian investments, led by President Dmitry Medvedev.

After Discussions

After the speeches and discussed issues came the cocktails and lunch talk, which was more focused because of the global crises featured live on news broadcasts, and world leaders having to keep up with the situations developing in their own countries. The discussion is hopefully the cure, but even there the focus is on how the world's nations can work together, a sign that the overall problem is lack of global cooperation.

One of the largest environmental issues is water. During the next decade, global strategists believe that water will become as contentious an issue as oil is today, as population and demand is stressing already limited resources. Whether or not there will be lasting answers, at least we can assume from the tone of the global gathering that the problems are in sharp focus.