The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world including health and the environment.

Funny article by journalist Daniel Gross in Slate – Searching for an Optimist at Davos:

… Armed with a notebook, Blackberry, flip camera, and laptop, I mounted a 72-hour effort to locate an optimistic CEO. …

… many CEOs bore the harrowed looks of survivors of the Donner Party. Once they trickled in, many having endured the indignity of flying commercial for the first time in years, they were treated to an avalanche of doomsaying. Alarmists, from hedge-fund manager George Soros to historian Niall Ferguson, spun elaborate tales of catastrophe. Ferguson boldly concluded that the United States was destined for a decade of extremely lame growth. Economists were universally downbeat, which isn’t totally surprising. (They don’t call economics the dismal science for nothing.) Those who had successfully predicted the debacle, like Nouriel Roubini, New York University’s Dr. Doom, were elevated to prime speaking slots. …

read the rest of the article in Slate

I’ve been unaffected, personally, by the recession, as yet.

Perhaps that’s why I have a feeling some parts of the world, including Alberta, will bounce back much more quickly than expected. Perhaps even mid-2009.

No doubt I will be asked to speak in Davos next year.

Swinging the axe – Job-cutting has begun in earnest. But will the axe be wielded wisely? – Economist