Hungarian born billionaire investor George Soros has criticised tech “monopolies” such as Facebook and Google, calling them a threat to democracy. At his annual dinner at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Soros warned that social media platforms were “obstacles to innovation”.
European leaders warned at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday against a return to nationalism, with France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel calling for more global cooperation to harness the forces of globalization.
The U.S. dollar extended its recent rout to hit three-year lows on Wednesday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he welcomed a weakening in the dollar. Fears of protectionist trade policies by the United States had already pushed the greenback to a three-year low, and Mnuchin’s remark at the annual Davos summit of business and political leaders pushed it down further.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri held on Wednesday a meeting with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the framework of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in which they discussed German investments in Argentina through Private-Public Partnership (PPP).
The announcement that US President Trump is to visit Switzerland later this month to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, has prompted mixed reactions. While a spokesman for the Swiss government said it was “delighted” that President Trump was coming to the mountain resort of Davos, centre-left politicians have made their displeasure clear.
With rising economic strains on one side and ever more environmental concerns on the other, the world could soon find itself in the perfect global storm, the World Economic Forum warned in a report on Tuesday.
There is an urgent need for the United States to tackle the deficit in the government's finances since the size of the exposure risks creating instability in the financial markets, according to the International Monetary Fund. However the IMF says the global economic recovery is gaining strength.
Last year at the World Economic Forum, Bill and Melinda Gates called for the next ten years to be the decade of vaccines. This week as talks reconvene in Davos, Switzerland, Gates in partnership with the United Kingdom, has donated an additional $120 million dollars to fight polio in particular. This news comes in light of the Global Health Fund fraud accusations that Gates has $150 million invested in.
David Cameron and George Osborne have insisted they will stick to their spending cuts programme despite deepening economic gloom and renewed threats of co-ordinated strike action.
The World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Organised Crime, meeting in Davos, has issued a three page report on the international organised crime situation.