Daily Davos: Matteo Renzi, China’s economy

Here is your daily digest of news from, and about, the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2015.

On the agenda

What is underlying uncertainty and volatility? Are geopolitical tensions, massive government intervention in the markets, the falling oil price and divergence in monetary policies the new normal?

Is transparency the issue? Are markets mispricing risk? Where next for oil prices?

Tectonic plates are shifting under global society. Companies, governments, states and communities will be affected, what characteristics will the survivors share?

Economic progress cannot happen without social progress, and there are challenges from religion, health and pandemics.  

All this calls for leadership. The question: are leaders up to the job?

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi thinks so.

While China’s Premier Li Keqiang observed: “When the wind of change blows, some build walls, while others build windmills.”

How do we get perspective? We need to take the long view.

The World Economic Forum in the news

What goes down must go up. Even oil prices, say economists in Davos. “The boost to the global economy will be modest and the bigger effect will be a redistribution of income from oil producers to consumers.” (FT)

This is the youngest Davos participant. And he’s helping save lives with an app. “In 2012, the Cameroonian visited a hospital in his home country that had lost 17 babies in one week. The startling figure prompted him to find solutions.“ (Huffington Post)

Davos 2015: A top woman exec explains why she’s attending. “The number of women in Davos will rise in coming years, as the conversations that are taking place all around us are going to fundamentally impact the path for women in the future.” (Fortune)

Al Gore and Pharrell Williams launch climate change concert. A one-day, six-continent event to pressure climate negotiators to agree to carbon emissions controls. (International Business Times)

A very few things that happen in a Davos day. Including 193 snowmen and women (one from each country, with a scarf to prove it). (AP)

And a pessimistic focus on our robotic future. (Telegraph)

How to follow Davos: Scan the Davos portals of the FT, Quartz, Fortune, Reuters, and our own Agenda.

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Author: Adrian Monck is Managing Director and head of Public Engagement at the World Economic Forum.

Image: Participant captured during the session Human vs Artificial Intelligence in the congress centre at the Annual Meeting 2015 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 21, 2015. WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM/Benedikt von Loebell