Davos Day Two: The French Mistake

We might not be in Davos, but that doesn’t mean we won’t weigh in. A roundup of what we see as the most interesting bits to come out of today’s official sessions (and a few unofficial ones) at the World Economic Forum:

A New Reason to Hate the French?

Capitalism needs an overhaul. That’s the message French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave during a keynote speech today. We need deep profound change,” Sarkozky said, in a speech that’s sure to rile American conservatives who are already fearful that socialism is making a serious challenge to capitalism. "We must re-engineer capitalism to restore its moral dimension, its conscience," he said. "By placing free trade above all else, what we have is a weakening of democracy.” By all accounts, his remarks were met with polite and scattered applause by an audience filled with bankers and high finance types.

Tales of Oil and Gas

Clean tech may be the rage in entrepreneurial circles, but in Davos today, oil ruled. "There is too much rhetoric about moving away from oil," Khalid A. Al Falih, CEO of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, said in a panel discussion. Still, even some of the world’s biggest oil companies tried to be a little green. At a panel discussion on global concerns about rising dependency on oil, energy chiefs lauded new reserves of natural gas found in shale rock. “It’s a big deal and necessary—globally,” said Peter Voser, chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

Barney Frank Finds Soulmates:

U.S. Representative Barney Frank, the champion of tough regulation of banks and other financial institutions in the House of Representatives, has found some like-minded souls in Switzerland. The always-interesting Massachusetts Democrat tells Reuters that European regulators and lawmakers he’s run into at the conference for the rich and powerful agree with him that regulating financial institutions must be a top priority, and that regulators from the various countries need to present a united front against banking lobbyists. "There is an international consensus that we need tough regulation and we can't afford to have a situation where they can play us off against each other," Frank said in the interview.

A Look at the Man From China

When Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang appeared in Davos to talk about his country’s economic plans, he didn’t actually make much news. Yes, he laid out a big strategic picture of how China would expand its economy by encouraging domestic demand, investing more in the green tech space, and doing more to build the vast country’s urban centers and job capacity. But he didn’t shed much light on China’s take on global monetary policy, particularly the value of the yuan compared with the U.S. dollar. What he did do was show up, look good, and generate columns and blog posts aplenty about this man who is poised to be the next premier of China. “Li Keqiang, cuts the polished, poised figure of the world leader he is about to become … Down to the white shirt, red tie and well-cut suit, he could have been a western chief executive doing a roadshow,” writes Paul Maidment on Forbes.com.

Pledging Allegiance to the Euro

Spain, Greece, and Latvia will do what it takes to stay in the euro zone, the three economically troubled nations’ leaders have vowed. “Nobody is going to be leaving the euro. More countries are going to be joining the euro,” Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said, the New York Times’ Jack Ewing reports. “That is the best proof of how successful the project is.” It’s a nice sentiment, but likely to come with some pain for the countries involved. They will have to make budget cuts and other changes to meet the standards of the common trading alliance.

Lula won’t make it to Davos

Brazil’s populist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was all set to give the bankers and industrialists who drove the world economy into the ditch a piece of his leftist mind. But the former union leader who now heads South America’s most prosperous country, and one of the rising economic powers of the world, won’t make it to Davos after all. The BBC reports that da Silva fell ill just as he was about to make the flight to Switzerland, where he was to receive an award from all the capitalists and deliver them a scolding in return. Lula spent the night in the hospital and will rest for the next few days at home.