(Image Source: Set You Free News) 

BY DAVID EARL

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO


Titans of industry … captains of capital … and reigning rulers from around the globe descended on Davos, Switzerland to kick off the 2012 World Economic Forum. Fox Business has part of the triple-A list for the billionaire bash...

“Everyone from Coca-Cola’s Muhtar Kent to Bob Diamond, leader of the gigantic UK bank Barclays, Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and of course Microsoft...”
 

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered a sobering dose of reality with the backdrop of the Eurozone financial crisis. She says the world needs quote, a big rethink.
 

“What sort of lessons have we learned from the global financial crisis and is it sufficient what we’ve learned. I think the answer to that is even in this year it’s still not quite sufficient.”
 

With austerity on the mind, Bloomberg talks to an NYU economist at Davos who says optimism in Europe won’t come quick … and it’ll take work.
 

“Fiscal centralization, reform in Italy and Spain and a number of other places, fiscal stabilization, I would describe it as patience but persistence.”
 

Amid speculation on all the Eurozone fallout, the Guardian reports attendees at Davos are tackling a host of other serious topics this year.
 

“Wednesday's programme in Davos kicked off with a debate on whether 20th-century capitalism is failing 21st-century society. A report on the risks facing the world in 2012 is titled The Seeds of Dystopia. It notes that many of the indicators of economic and societal health are going in the wrong direction... So, the good news in Davos is that the right questions are starting to be asked.”
 

But it’s still not all work. The one percent take breaks to play snow polo … this year, though, Bloomberg reports a familiar movement showed up too. Yep … you guessed it … the 99 percent.
 

“The Occupy movement that started on Wall Street is setting up camp in Davos. The demonstrators say delegates are detached.”


Policy debates, protests, and play at Davos 2012. The 25th World Economic Forum runs through January 29.