Davos Day Three: Greece Is the Word

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:

Greece’s problems plague Davos: Speculation about Greece’s debt problems is in the alpine air at Davos, and on world money trading floors as well. The big question is: Will the cradle of western civilization need a bailout? The question has dragged the euro down to a six-month low against the dollar, the BBC reports. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has repeatedly said his country wouldn’t need a bailout. Greece has the world’s worst performing government debt. But so far, the big powers of Europe are standing by Greece, and say it won’t be kicked out of the eurozone.

Bankers Better Look Out

European central bankers and regulators are outraged, outraged, to find that there are bonuses going on among those they regulate. And they’re promising that this time, they’ll get tough, Tim Weber of the BBC reports. What these regulators are talking about are tough new worldwide rules that crack down on some of the shenanigans bankers like to get up to, and to levy “capital requirement charges,” on bankers who don’t set enough money aside. Why? Well, bankers in the western countries happily took government bailouts during the meltdown and promptly turned them into profits. So far, so good, right. But what has the regulators seething is that the bankers didn’t use those profits to shore up their books. Instead, the boosted bonus pools and dividends. Bad bankers. "We wanted to see sensible behaviour by banks, but we didn't see it, so we need collective action," said one official.

Gates pledges $10 billion

Sometimes it’s not just about making money when the rich and powerful get together. Sometimes—especially when it comes to the world’s richest man, and one of its greatest philanthropists—it’s about giving it away. Word from Davos is that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $10 billion over 10 years to research vaccines and get them to the world’s poorest countries. But Gates doesn’t want to be the only one ponying up. He also wants governments to step up their efforts to make vaccines available to the poorest of the poor. "We must make this the decade of vaccines," Bill Gates said in a statement. "Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before."

China Takes Over “In a Decade or Two”

That’s the consensus view at Davos, according to Alan Friedman of The Atlantic. Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, who is expected to become prime minister in 2012, was running around telling anyone who would listen that the U.S. is headed toward a double-dip recession. George Soros and Nouriel Roubini agreed with him. Well, at least that gives the rest of us a few years to learn Mandarin. Last one out of the U.S., please turn off the lights and set the thermostat to low.

Google’s Not Done With China

Eric Schmidt was sounding more like a U.S. government official than a corporate CEO when he talked about improving conditions for China’s citizens. “We love what China is doing as a country and its growth,” the Google chief executive said during a conference call from Davos. “We just don’t like the censorship. We hope to apply some negotiation or pressure to make things better for the Chinese people.” Google and China have been at odds since the Chinese government shut down 100,000 sites in December. Schmidt said the company is following Chinese law and hopes to remain in the country, but he noted that it still might be forced to shut down its Google.cn site.

The many wives of Jacob Zuma: Technically, this came during Davos’ second day, but since we didn’t see the reports until today, it’s part of our Day Three roundup. Jacob Zuma, the South African leader who is in Davos trying to sell Africa as an “investment destination,” was asked about his many wives (he has three) during a panel discussion by Newsweek International editor and CNN host Fareed Zakaria. Zuma said it all part of his culture, and if others looked down upon him for it, that was their problem, not his. "That's my culture. It does not take anything from me, from my political beliefs and everything, including the belief on the equality of women,” he said.

A Breach of Security

A truly alarming report from Liz Claman of Fox Business News, who says “Hey, Stuart, breaking news, the bathrooms flooded at the Congress Center in Davos, just as I was talking to Bill Gates. They had to evacuate at least part of the basement. Lovely, I know, talk about environmental risks here.” She also flagged Bill Gates with a disarmingly simple approach that began “Hey, you’re a business guy…” Follow the rest of FBN’s report here. If you dare.

Let's Go to the Bloomberg TV Videotape

Vikram Pandit, Citigroup CEO, asked whether President Obama’s anti-bank rhetoric was going too far:

“Wherever you look around the world, there is a concern about why we are where we are and also concern about how we should be designing a system for the future that’s safe, that’s sound, encourages job creation, all of that, and it’s hard to design that without the banks being right in the middle of it and so it’s very natural that we’re a topic for discussion.”

Arianna Huffington, founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, asked to comment on points made in Obama’s State of the Union address.

“When the president says there’s a deficit of trust, I think there’s a deficit of trust everywhere, including here among the participants.”

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