Something in the air

Snowy Davos AFP

I’ve arrived in the Swiss resort of Davos to find abundant snow covering the 42nd World Economic Forum annual meeting.

But the air is also thick with dire warnings of impending economic and social collapse.

The WEF’s risk report identifies myriad interconnecting problems that threaten to plunge the world into a dystopian nightmare of riots and revolution.

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, says the world is on the brink of a 1930s-style depression.

The International Labour Organization has highlighted the plight of 1.1 billion people (a third of the world’s workforce) that are without a job or living in poverty.

Ratings agencies have recently downgraded banks and whole countries out of fear that they will not be able to pay off mountainous debts.

The WEF may well be derided as a talking shop, but it offers a unique insight into how the major players on the world stage are interacting.

Not that many years ago, the few dissident voices that warned of spiralling debt and uncontrolled financial speculation were drowned out by the jeers of the majority.

The few bankers that showed their faces after the 2008 financial crash were reduced to hand wringing in the face of a torrent of criticism. But now they’ve made it perfectly clear that they’ve had enough of saying sorry.

It will be interesting to see whether there are any signs of cooperation and a common cause between the various interest groups this year. My money is on the air to be full of flying fur.