World Economic Forum

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

The Daily Mail City Team look at the World Economic Forum.

What is it?

Each year around the end of January, the Alpine resort of Davos plays host to the elite of business and politics.

Is that it?

The WEF grandly proclaims that global leaders are drawn together to discuss the economic and social issues of the day, hence the lobbying presence of Oxfam, Amnesty International and various UN organisations. It modestly states it is 'committed to improving the state of the world'.

Is it?

You get the impression it is no more than a rare public meeting of the billionaire's club as Microsoft's Bill Gates rubs shoulders with Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Who's turned them down?

US treasury secretary Hank Paulson is giving it a miss. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet is a maybe. Gordon Brown accepted his invitation - perhaps before he found out that Tony Blair was attending.

What's happening this year?

Hot topics are the vexed question of whether the Federal Reserve is being alarmist in cutting rates or ahead of the curve, and the influence of state-controlled sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia that are snapping up western assets.

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