Why all this fuss about the World Economic Forum in Davos!

The World Economic Forum – which wrapped-up its 4 days in Davos, Switzerland yesterday – is an annual event at which corporate titans, international bankers, world leaders and a smattering of celebrity do-gooders gather to bloviate about the impact of world developments on their respective businesses, personal wealth, and collective conscience. Politicians and celebrities change from year to year, but the regulars are invariably the same CEOs, investors, and managers who represent the world’s super rich.

The forum is promoted as “impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.” But movers and shakers know the reason an invitation to this retreat is so coveted is that it’s a rare (and rarified) opportunity to see and be seen amongst the people who really rule the world. And, the PR value of such images alone is priceless.

However, the real pay-off comes from the contacts that are made and business tips that flow during unguarded chats in Swiss Chalets and on Davos ski slopes. Indeed, nothing demonstrates this latter point more than when Pfizer CEO Hank McKinnel dropped an unguarded tip to viewers during a CNBC interview with Maria Bartiromo – outside in the falling snow – last Friday.

His tip alerted investors to the FDA’s approval of one of Pfizer’s new drugs (Exubera – an inhalable form of insulin) hours before the official announcement. This then gave the usual pack of insiders – who feed on such tips everyday – ample time to trade on the stock.Of course, many of us remember that this is the kind of tip-off about a new drug that domestic diva Martha Stewart got from her friend, ImClone CEO Sam Waksal, that landed them both in jail. But Martha and Sam merely got caught doing what most invitees to Davos do as par for the course (i.e. feed on insider tips) in their business affairs.

But all of this highfalutin wheeling and dealing is supposed to remain as guarded from the press as the secret professional societies to which many of the Davos regulars belong (The Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, et al). In fact, the wealthiest one percent would have the rest of us (i.e. the ninety-nine percent) believe that this forum is all about addressing world economic problems that affect our lives. That’s why the most talked-about feature of their gathering is not the (main event) schmooze-fests for business opportunities; instead, it’s the (under card) gabfests for charitable causes at which invited guests sit on panels to blow hot air on issues like climate change and the plight of the poor:

Enter stage left – Bono (debt relief); Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo (Tuberculosis); Firmino Mucavele, Chief Executive, NEPAD Secretariat (fighting famine in Africa) et. al.

However, it’s a reflection of compassion fatigue from last year’s Tsunami aid, Live 8 – to make poverty history and Hurricane Katrina relief that this year’s most notable gabfest was about the environment. And, no one was more suited to expel hot air for this cause than former U.S President Bill Clinton. In fact, he closed the official business of the forum on Saturday with a bloviating exposition on global warming that would have made Al Gore blush with envy…again!But imagine that, with Hamas dealing a shocking blow to peace in the Middle East, Iran ratcheting up its talk about nuclear war, Iraq looking more and more like Vietnam every day and the unwieldy war against Islamic terrorists showing no end in sight, Clinton held attendees spellbound talking about climate change as the most serious threat to mankind:

“I worry about climate change….It’s the only thing that I believe has the power to fundamentally end the march of civilization as we know it, and make a lot of the other efforts that we’re making irrelevant and impossible.”

Really? Then perhaps he should not have emitted so much hot air with this speech and, perhaps, his pals should have thought twice about flying their gas-guzzling, air-polluting private jets to Davos – both of which probably contributed, in equal measure, to the purported global warming phenomenon they’re all so concerned about….

World Economic Forum, Davos Switzerland