Fun in snowy Davos last week as the good, the great and the 'frankly-lucky-to-have-got-away-with-it' of the finance world gathered to give one another the benefit of their thoughts. Inevitably the long shadow of the recession and the banking crisis hung over the resort this year and much attention was given over to the subject of reform of the system to make sure that there will be no repeat of the past couple of years.
But of course about the only thing that everyone did agree on was that no-one wanted to have to go through all that again. How to achieve that goal was another matter altogether. Vested interests of a personal, institutional and national nature were never far from the debate all week, whether it be fat cat bankers seeking to defend their bonuses or politicians trying to distance themselves from being hemmed into global initiatives that might harm them at the local ballot box.
Nobody seemed terribly keen on President Obama getting tough with the banking industry, which was an interesting political tightrope for the likes of UK Chancellor Alistair Darling to try to negotiate: how to tell Obama to back off without damaging whatever tattered remains still exist of the precious 'special relationship'. No such worries for French President Nicolas Sarkozy of course, who just weighed in with his French self-interest on full and unashamed display as he called for a reinvention of capitalism, doubtless with a Gallic flavouring to distinguish it from the failed Anglo Saxon version.
So what do we conclude now that Davos is over for another year? One sad observation might be that despite all the rhetoric there was still a fundamental unwillingness - or inability? - to get to grips with the real problems that needed to be addressed. There was much hushed talk of the threat of a double-dip recession with a second slump that would make the recent troubles seem like a minor disturbance. Did these get the full and frank airing they needed to get, either to tackle the prospect head on or to dispel the myth once and for all? No. Did we get lots of navel gazing about increasingly tortuous levels and models of financial regulation? Yes. Meanwhile the Greek treasury officials scuttled hither and thither, desperately talking up that country's economy over a retsina or three and trying to dissuade the watching world that it was about to drag the Eurozone into a hell of a lot of trouble.
Such elephants in the room did their best to trumpet as quietly - and as reassuringly - as they could, but at the end of the day, try as they might, none of the delegates in Davos could convincingly carry off the line that we were clear of the recession and climbing back up. It was left to Larry Summers, President Obama's chief economics advisor, to deliver the most potent soundbite of the summit: "What we have is a statistical recovery but a human recession."
That's the real challenge that needs to be met before we all gather for some fiscal apres ski next year...
