Another weird day has passed. But all days at Davos are weird. One never knows what is going on, except for the fact that, wherever one is, one would be far better off somewhere else.

The highlight of yesterday evening was the opening address of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The speech is so classically French as to be a caricature of itself: bombastic, high-flown and verbose, it addresses a vast range of contemporary challenges, around the grand theme of moralising and containing capitalism. Yet, I have to admit, there is much in it with which I find myself in agreement. Read more

I never thought I’d read myself saying this, but there are times when a man can tire of debates about macro-prudential flexing of Basel 2 capital requirements. It’s hard to believe, I know – maybe it’s the thin mountain air that does it.

Fortunately, there are other subjects of debate this year. Bill Clinton came to talk about Haiti, and many others have reflected on the difficulty of organising effective responses to a disaster, in a state which was fragile beforehand, and where much of the usual government infrastructure does not function. The normal difficulties of co-ordinating the efforts of different countries and agencies are compounded, leading Clinton to advocate a small group imposed from outside to force a common approach. Read more

First session of the day is on ‘Rethinking humanitarian response’ and was again dominated by Haiti. Is it really all as chaotic as the media depicts? If the response was slow, slow compared to what exactly? What are the respective roles of the UN, government, NGOS, business and military?

I think we have the answers to these questions but there is not enough time and ongoing interest to build a shared understanding across the different sectors. Still, the room is not hostile and the concluding straw poll shows more people are optimistic than pessimistic about the scale-up in Haiti. Read more

One of the big topics of conversation here in Davos is the economy. In panel discussions and hallway conversations, people are talking about the long-term effects of the recession of 2009. While it’s true that we will see lingering unemployment and huge government deficits for quite some time, I think the big story is actually much more positive. I believe we can make amazing progress in the years ahead to improve people’s lives around the world. The key is to keep investing in innovation. It is what makes the difference between a bleak future and a bright one.

During the past two centuries, a huge number of innovations have fundamentally changed the human condition-more than doubling our life span and giving us cheap energy and more food. If we project what the world will be like ten years from now without continuing innovation in health, energy, or food, the picture is quite dark. Health costs for the rich will keep escalating, forcing tough trade-offs, and the poor will be stuck in the bad situation they are in today. We will have to increase the price of energy to reduce consumption, and the poor will suffer from both this higher cost and the effects of climate change. We will have big food shortages because we won’t have enough land to feed the world’s growing population. Read more