#5 Quotes From the #WEF 2017 That Can Shake the World Economy
The World Economic Forum is best known for the flagship event held at the end of January in Davos, Switzerland, bringing together CEOs, politicians, representatives from academia, NGOs, religious leaders, and the media.This year the WEF saw over 400 sessions on the official programme, covering everything from the rise of populism to the global economic outlook. The WEF meeting was dominated by various subjects like Robotics, China, Donald Trump and Brexit this year.
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However, it also witnessed several foremost comments that can end up impacting world economies, for good and bad.
The US Has Wasted Its Wealth On Wars:
Billionaire of China's e-commerce leader Alibaba Group, Jack Ma spoke at the World Economic Forum that American international companies made millions and millions of dollars from globalization, but it has largely wasted its wealth.
Ma also stressed on the fact that in the past 30 years, America has had 13 wars at a cost of $14.2 trillion. And that's where it wasted its wealth. He believes that nobody is stealing jobs from the Americans, they have already spent too much on wars.
"It's not that other countries steal American jobs; it is US strategy –that it did not distribute the money in a proper way," Ma said.
Risks to U.S Economy From Dollar's Strength:
Donald Trump's senior advisor Anthony Scaramucci at the World Economic Forum warned that US policymakers need to be careful about the rising dollar strength.
"We need to be careful about the rising currency, not just because of what is going on internationally but it will have an impact internally to the United States as well." said Scaramucci in Davos.
Dollar Could Be The Greatest Risk To The Global Economy :
Scaramucci's views were backed by other participants, including Carlyle Chief David Rubenstein, who warned the strong dollar might kill the global economy in 2017.
"It would be ironic if Mexico had to be bailed out by the next U.S. administration," said Rubenstein.
Fear of Economic 'Race to Bottom' :
When asked about "black swans," could be expected in 2017, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde warned against the risks caused by U.S. president Donald Trump's policies.
"If the disruptions we are expecting for 2017 as a result of what has happened in 2016 prove to be all negative and we are to end up in a race to the bottom on the tax front, on the trade front, on the financial regulation front, then that for me would be a really big 'black swan' that would have devastating effects," said Lagarde .
A black swan is basically an event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and is extremely difficult to predict.
Dangerous Consequences Of A "Trade War" :
It was the first time that a Chinese President was attending WEF summit in Davos . Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at the annual summit touched upon various subjects like climate change, trade liberalization and globalization.
"We must remain committed to developing global free trade and investment, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation through opening up, and say no to protectionism," Jinping said.
He also added that no one will emerge as a winner in a trade war and hopes that other countries will also keep their door open to Chinese investors.
