Randomly Noted

More than once at Davos a quote from Ronald Reagan has been taken in vain.

The quote from the former U.S. president is said to go something like this: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

After getting an audience chuckle, the speakers using the line go on to say that during the height of the financial crisis, bankers and others were for once indeed glad to see the government, riding to the rescue.

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The chief executive of temporary employment powerhouse Manpower Inc. is clear on his views of banker compensation.

“I’m not happy about it,” said Jeffrey A. Joerres, chairman and CEO of Manpower, which in 2009 ranked 119 in the Fortune 500 list of American companies. “I believe in great compensation for great performance,” but banker pay in many cases has “gotten out of whack” and is a “distraction to us all.”

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A Facebook poll of users revealed some interesting differences about India’s global role as seen from inside and outside the nation.

Presented as part of a panel discussion about India at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum here in Davos, a majority of global Facebook users, responding to the question of what the world should expect from India, said they want India to be a leader on climate change issues.

When Facebook users within India were asked what India should expect from the world, the largest portion – 42% – said a seat on the United Nations Security Council. The next biggest chunk – 28% – want the world to look after India’s security interests.

Anand Sharma, India’s minister of commerce and industry, protested that the global economic architecture and the U.N. stemmed from post-World War II realities and don’t reflect today’s world, including the role of India, the world’s largest democracy.

Robert Hormats, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs, agreed that if the U.N. was created today the Security Council would look a lot different.

Hormats noted the rise of the G20 group of nations as a key policy group – supplanting the G7 – and India’s key role in the G20.

Neal Lipschutz is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

A statue in the City of London depicting the authors of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley U.S. regulatory legislation?

Such a monument is worthy of consideration, joked Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s, at a World Economic Forum panel discussion here.

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Neal Lipschutz is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

A sovereign debt crisis looms as the most likely threat to the global economy, or at least the most popular threat.

Attendees at a World Economic Forum panel discussion here were asked to vote via handheld electronic gadgets on the biggest threat after listening to about 90 minutes of debate.

A sovereign debt crisis brought on by excessive government borrowing took about 51 per cent of the votes. The other two choices given the audience, the threat of protectionism or the threat of too much regulation, won 37 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively.

Neal Lipschutz is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

When asked about the value of the Chinese yuan at a World Economic Forum panel here, Zhu Min, China’s deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, emphasized the importance of the currency’s stability, especially as many other currencies have been volatile.

Fellow panelist U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, then cut in. The yuan can be stable, just a bit higher in value, Frank said.

Neal Lipschutz is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In a debate at the World Economic Forum about the threat of global protectionism, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, managed to take on Thomas Jefferson.

He said the Jeffersonian notion that farming was a superior form of life has led to subsidies and protectionism in the U.S.

Similar problems exist in the European Union. Saying EU agricultural policy is “ridiculous,” Frank claimed European farmers should be bought out.

The idea that the “noble yeoman” must be protected at all costs leads to protectionism, Frank said.

Neal Lipschutz is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

World Economic Forum officials are pleased with the increased participation this year of representatives of emerging economies in the group’s annual meeting getting under way in Davos, Switzerland.

Such emerging country attendance is said to be up significantly from a year ago.

It’s perhaps just one more sign of the shift in economic power and investment interest away from the U.S. and other large Western nations.

That notion of different short-term economic futures for the developed and developing (the very names of the categories are being called into question) markets was reinforced by bond manager Bill Gross of investment firm PIMCO.

In his monthly commentary, published today, Gross advised a globally minded investor to look for a “savings-oriented economy which should evolve into a consumer-focused economy.” China, India, Brazil “and more miniature-sized examples of each would be excellent examples,” he wrote.

As G7 nations and “their lookalikes” delever, they have given up the driver’s seat of the global economy, Gross said.

He saved perhaps his harshest language for the United Kingdom. He called the nation’s bonds “a must to avoid,” citing factors that have placed gilts “resting on a bed of nitroglycerine.”

Neal Lipschutz is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Registering at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, you are, of course, handed a meeting bag. The WEF’s bag sports the immodest motto, “Committed to improving the state of the world.”

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