The silly circus of high finance

The Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo has come under attack in his own country for his absence from the World Economic Forum in Davos. But in the left-liberal daily De Morgen columnist Hugo Camps defends the prime minister's decision: "Davos - for me that sounds too much like a Mongégasque 'Bal de la Rose' of high finance. A ritual, a myth. ... The new potatoes are cooked, the turbot has been grilled to perfection, the tiramisu tastes heavenly - and that's the least you can expect for an admission charge of 35,000 euros. But will we be living in a different world after Davos? Free from the spectre of recession? Will capitalism have been made fit for the 21st century? Not a chance. That would require the help of the Chinese, the Brazilians and the Russians, and they're not there because they are allergic to excessive scholarliness, as true capitalists should be. Do we hear the broad middle in Davos? The counteracting forces of globalisation? ... Nope, it's just a slick trade fair."

» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Economy, » Switzerland, » Global