Day One:
What State of the Union?
Davos 2011 is off and running. I've been surprised how little talk there's been today about the president's State of the Union speech. I know it aired here at 3 in the morning, but people here are rarely asleep at 3 in the morning (a Davos sleep challenge would be, well, a major challenge -- more on that in a bit). Plus, everyone here has an iPad, laptop, or mobile phone (and often all three), so it wouldn't be hard to watch a replay. But it doesn't seem to be on people's radar screen. At a reception hosted by Yale President Rick Levin, I ran into the Chamber of Commerce's CEO Tom Donohue and asked him what he thought of the speech. "I liked parts of it," he said. "What didn't you like?" I asked. "With gasoline prices headed to over $4 a gallon," he replied, "there was no reason to demagogue oil companies." And a TV producer, who asked for anonymity to protect his chances of ever playing basketball with Obama, was focused on the president's makeup: "It was dreadful," he told me. "He looked so yellow, it was like he was jaundiced. It was so bad, John Boehner looked natural by comparison." But other than smatterings, not much post-speech chatter.
The Video That Must Be Daily Viewing at the White House and Congress
My day started with taking part in a CNBC debate entitled "The West Isn't Working," focused on global employment. The debate was divided into two parts. The first part was on the motion, "For a dynamic workforce, go East!" and centered on the rise of China and India and the decline of the West as an engine for growth and employment opportunities. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the chairman of Biocon, argued in favor of the motion while Barry Silbert, the CEO of SecondMarket, argued against. Laura Tyson, a member of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Philip Jennings, the general secretary of the UNI Global Union, and I challenged both sides with our own comments and questions.
The second half of the debate addressed the motion, "Education is a failing industry," looking at the mismatch between demand for skilled workers and education supply. Jeffrey Joerres, the CEO of Manpower Inc., made the case that the education system needs to change, because it isn't filling the needs of employers. Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, argued that education is doing many things right, and that while "training prepares people for the jobs of 2011, education prepares people for the jobs of 2021." After each motion was debated, there was a "Call to Action" segment where everyone was asked to offer tangible solutions to the problems being debated. The debate was taped and will air on CNBC on Feb. 4.
It was a lively debate, but for me the most memorable part of it was a powerful short video (posted below) highlighting the global unemployment crisis that was shown at the start of the program. Before the audience was let into the auditorium, the CNBC crew was doing a technical run-through with Maria Bartiromo, who was moderating the debate. So I got to watch the video five or six times in a row. And each time its potent mix of doomsday music, depressing statistics, and images of global unemployment (especially among the young) and political unrest really hit me. So when the debate started, I told the audience: "This video should be played at the White House and in every Congressional office every single morning until unemployment drops to pre-recession levels." Watching it leaves you feeling like you can't just sit there -- you have to do something before it's too late. It reminded me of the time Bobby Kennedy, as Attorney General, brought his brother's Cabinet to his office at the Justice Department and locked the door, forcing them to stay there for four hours discussing how to best address the crisis of poverty in America. I was ready to lock the doors of the Congress Centre auditorium until we had determined to do something concrete about unemployment.
Bursting at the Seams
The Congress Centre, the official hub of the World Economic Forum, has been expanded and renovated, but there is still the feeling of a crowded, buzzing beehive -- especially in the main executive lounge outside the Sanada room where many of the sessions take place. Today, the lounge was so packed -- with people who instead of attending panels and speeches were schmoozing -- there wasn't a seat to be found. So, when I met up with Justin Webb and Sareen Bains, who were interviewing me for the BBC's Today show, we ended up sitting on the floor and doing the interview there. As we sat there, a constant stream of people walked by -- including Jamie Dimon and Larry Summers. I wonder if they thought I was having a 60s moment and had decided to start some sort of Davos sit-in as part of my "doing something about unemployment" drive.
Burnout, Davos-Style
As I said, getting enough sleep isn't the highest priority among Davos participants. It's partly the active, after-hours scene (many of the parties don't even start until 10 or 11), and partly the way lack of sleep has become a sort of virility symbol for many of the world's movers and shakers. In the cult of no sleep, 7 a.m. is the new 9 a.m. Despite the late nights, trying to make a breakfast appointment in Davos is an exercise in sleep deprivation one-upmanship. "Oh, hi Arianna, yeah, 8 is a bit late, but it's fine because that'll give me time to have gotten in a couple of ski runs and a conference call with Moscow first." The WEF organizers have apparently noticed the trend and have put together a panel to explore the question, "Why is it the latest fashion to be a burnout victim?" The panel description defines burnout as "a condition of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion" that results when "striving for recognition and success is exaggerated and the balance between work, family life and leisure is lost." The panel is fittingly scheduled for Saturday, the last day of the forum, in the middle of the afternoon, which seems like a missed opportunity -- how much more resonant it would have been if it was held at 3:30 a.m. instead of 3:30 p.m.
Make of This What You Will
It's worth noting that the only panel on the entire program that directly addressed poverty, a session entitled "Making Poverty History," and featuring A.R. Rahman, the award-winning composer of the score for Slumdog Millionaire, was canceled. According to the WEF website: "No contributors could be retrieved for this session." Maybe they were afraid the ghost of Bobby Kennedy would show up and lock them all in.
WATCH:
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Jeff Jarvis: Davos 2011: Too Little Content
Jim Wallis: Changing Bad Behavior at Davos
I don't think so.
A lot of interesting things are happening but not mentioned in the article.
1. GE former CEO Jeffrey Immelt is now the Economic adviser for us -[no conflict of interest there]
2. GE and Shenhua announced joint investment company for "cleaner coal" -The businesses that comprise GE Energy-GE Power & Water, GE Energy Services and GE Oil & Gas-work together to provide integrated product and service solutions in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels......notice renewable resources such as water which will be polluted from manufacturing all these "cleaner Products such as solar panels ect.
3.Water, Food, And Energy Shortages Pose Increasing Threat To Economic Growth, Concludes World Economic Forum reported January 12, 2011
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- [no mention of this yet to the public]
4.G.W. Bush owns over 300000 acres in Paraquay that sits on natural gas and water aquifiers.
T. Boone Pickens has also bought up the rights to a considerable amount of water that lies below this part of the High Plains in a vast aquifer that came into existence millions of years ago.
The big cash cow is renewable resources for those who can buy it.
As for Donahue of The Chamber whining about Obama "demagogueing" oil companies when oil prices are scheduled to be manipulated up soon, doesn't The Chamber go out of its way to squash any efforts to promote alternative energy?
And it seems like some of the people at Davos are part of the problem. Haven't Dimon and Summers done enough damage? Does the US really need to export them?
As for poverty, again it is always analyzed through investor-employee models. Er, maybe overpopulation has something to do with it. Some nations have a large proportion of families having 6, 8, 10 kids. But our capitalist-fevered "leaders" only see cheap labor.
I have attended enough soirees to know the usual lack of concrete results generated. It would be interesting to see an in depth accounting of the event. So often, these are just social events which allow multiple ego trips. Hopefully, Arianna can find some other progressive people to hang with, wouldn't want her to become polluted. Hopefully she can convey the seriousness of the world's problems, and that things aren't necessarily better in the U.S.
We all know for years that 3rd world countries have languished meagerly around near nothingness compared with the 1st world. When Clinton open the doors to outsourcing, it began to give those countries hope and real pocketed money. But the snowball really got going when the corporations found their wildest dreams had come true -- that those folks could work and build unit x for .043 the US labor cost.
The corporatists' unbelievable afternoon delight.
So the question: Because the cheap sweat-shop labor countries are endless and corporations can effortlessly move from falling star to the next rising one ad infinitum, if that is so, do we not have to admit that labor in the US forever finished -- the dinosaur in the room.
And does it not follow, then, how can we comfort these dead-men walking into extinction and can we convert their progeny into sprouts to grow and mutate into a new successful wave of American something elses?
That is the plan of corporate globalism that has been sold but it cannot work, and those who actually sit in the thrones of silver and not copper know it.
They are gathering all they can while they can in actual hard assets and resources. They are working off traditional boom and bust capitalism, not a formula for sustainable capitalism of any kind, not the hell of eternal worker exploitation they have sold.
Even many of the wealthy in China, the nation with the most comprehensive plan on hand to break off and become a self sustaining and fully economic entity, have plans in their back pockets to bail and relocate to a nation with more natural resources to sustain their new economic dynasties they have formed.
You see, their is no tax cut, bail out plan, or massive infrastructure investment that can produce massive amounts of potable water on demand.
While they have the power to carry off and relocate everything else, nature returns water to where nature wills it to go. There is little to nothing they can do to change that. Nature still reigns on the throne of gold and Drought and Flooding sit at her feet.
Study world water resources and understand. They have.
And though that looming disaster must figure into overall planning, it isn't exactly what I was referring to re the dinos. But we see eye to eye and agree.
http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2010/college/data.htm
September, 2010
College or university degree attainment of the adult population, selected countries, 2007
Percent with college or university degree *
Italy ( 13)
Portugal ( 14)
Mexico ( 15)
Austria ( 18)
Germany ( 24)
France ( 27)
Spain ( 29)
Sweden ( 31)
Netherlands ( 31)
United Kingdom ( 32)
Ireland ( 32)
Denmark ( 32)
Norway ( 34)
Australia ( 34)
Korea ( 35)
United States ( 40)
New Zealand ( 41)
Japan ( 41)
Canada ( 48)
* Adult population is defined as persons ages 25 to 64.
I know you can't force people to study hard subjects like math and physics, but you can start fairly young teaching kids the practicalities of life, and one of those is that if they choose to study hard subjects, the reward later will be better job options. We need science and engineering skills not more psychology majors. Vocational training has been woefully ignored to the detriment of the economy.
-the see no problems,
-the hear no problems,
-the speak no problems.
Point is that, even if everyone was educated to the maximum of his/her ability, it amounts to nothing if the overall policy framework is insane.
Economic principles clearly describe the ratio of jobs supported by the manufacturing sector, where one production job keeps at least six other workers in viable employment. It will be impossible to generate enough “Service Sector” jobs to take up the slack. Another problem with the loss of manufacturing is the loss of experience. The learning curve for any employee follows a time curve such that the knowledge of the job increases by 5% every time we double the time on the job. Imagine the ability lost when the worker with 30 years of experience is laid off and the product was sent to a foreign country. After several years it becomes impossible to catch up to the foreign worker, while the original worker is doing something else and wouldn’t dream of returning to get burned a second time.
Who can we get to start a (New Party) that has (NO ties to big business) or to anyone that, will work for the equalities of the American People... ( "We the People" ) that have been wronged by our Politicians for ALL of these years??! It is a Teddy Roosevelt moment in our history NOW !!!
Arianna: Please can and will you help us ??!