Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists' SuperBawl Special: "NEVERMORE!" February 1-3, 2013 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)19. A handy guide to Davos-speak By Ryan McCarthy
http://blogs.reuters.com/davos/2013/01/25/a-handy-guide-to-davos-speak/
The impatience for growth will really take patience thats Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan in a panel on low economic growth, using the particular kind of language particular to the people who inhabit particular places like Davos. A panel called No Growth, Easy Money The New Normal? (those latter three words another terrible Davos phrase) began with the moderator grimly telling the crowd: Will we ever return to the normal, free world? This kind of sentence is ostensibly the kind of English you and I subscribe to, but on further examination, not so much.
Are the Davos elite really worrying about their freedom? Well, no. The World Economic Forum has no shortage of silly phrases, but some of them actually do have meaning beyond the euphemistic. What Davos folks mean when they constantly call for a growth plan or restoring growth is that no one can see any particular industry thats going to increase the pace at which they get rich. And, as a result, the rest of us will have fewer jobs. Ray Dalio, who runs Bridgewater, the worlds biggest hedge fund, had probably the clearest take on this low-growth world. In a post-crisis, high-debt global economy, Dalio said, economic growth cant come from debt, as it did during the last few decades or so. Economies are still deleveraging, debt wont rise faster than income and the primary way large economies can grow is by increasing productivity. What does Dalio actually mean by this? Dalio expanded a bit: the big conversation in politics and economics, he said, will be about how to get more out of workers growth wont come from the next Internet, the next real estate boom or any new asset, in other words. This means, he said, hard choices about questions like How long is a vacation? or What is a good life?
If you unpack this Davos-speak a bit, what Dalio is saying is particularly dire for the rest of us. When the worlds most successful investors tells you economic growth is going to depend on whether or not you take a vacation, its time to worry. This is what Tyler Cowen calls the great stagnation, a period of declining productivity growth that could hurt living standards. This isnt good news for those of us who dont have Davosian savings to rely on. But theres another troubling phrase that kept coming up: on Friday, Mario Draghi said the ECBs actions last year had removed the tail risk from the Euro, a phrase that was repeated by a handful of panelists on Friday. This a funny way to put it as my Reuters colleague Felix Salmon has pointed out at length, tail risk is something that is , by definition, improbable, elusive and generally hard to identify. When a Davos luminary, even one as accomplished as Mario Draghi, starts claiming to have identified something largely unidentifiable, take it with a big dose of non-euphemistic skepticism.
Or, to put it in, Davos-speak: retain your uber-mindfulness-influence
The impatience for growth will really take patience thats Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan in a panel on low economic growth, using the particular kind of language particular to the people who inhabit particular places like Davos. A panel called No Growth, Easy Money The New Normal? (those latter three words another terrible Davos phrase) began with the moderator grimly telling the crowd: Will we ever return to the normal, free world? This kind of sentence is ostensibly the kind of English you and I subscribe to, but on further examination, not so much.
Are the Davos elite really worrying about their freedom? Well, no. The World Economic Forum has no shortage of silly phrases, but some of them actually do have meaning beyond the euphemistic. What Davos folks mean when they constantly call for a growth plan or restoring growth is that no one can see any particular industry thats going to increase the pace at which they get rich. And, as a result, the rest of us will have fewer jobs. Ray Dalio, who runs Bridgewater, the worlds biggest hedge fund, had probably the clearest take on this low-growth world. In a post-crisis, high-debt global economy, Dalio said, economic growth cant come from debt, as it did during the last few decades or so. Economies are still deleveraging, debt wont rise faster than income and the primary way large economies can grow is by increasing productivity. What does Dalio actually mean by this? Dalio expanded a bit: the big conversation in politics and economics, he said, will be about how to get more out of workers growth wont come from the next Internet, the next real estate boom or any new asset, in other words. This means, he said, hard choices about questions like How long is a vacation? or What is a good life?
If you unpack this Davos-speak a bit, what Dalio is saying is particularly dire for the rest of us. When the worlds most successful investors tells you economic growth is going to depend on whether or not you take a vacation, its time to worry. This is what Tyler Cowen calls the great stagnation, a period of declining productivity growth that could hurt living standards. This isnt good news for those of us who dont have Davosian savings to rely on. But theres another troubling phrase that kept coming up: on Friday, Mario Draghi said the ECBs actions last year had removed the tail risk from the Euro, a phrase that was repeated by a handful of panelists on Friday. This a funny way to put it as my Reuters colleague Felix Salmon has pointed out at length, tail risk is something that is , by definition, improbable, elusive and generally hard to identify. When a Davos luminary, even one as accomplished as Mario Draghi, starts claiming to have identified something largely unidentifiable, take it with a big dose of non-euphemistic skepticism.
Or, to put it in, Davos-speak: retain your uber-mindfulness-influence
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
70 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
Weekend Economists' SuperBawl Special: "NEVERMORE!" February 1-3, 2013 [View all]
Demeter
Feb 2013
OP
Obama Administration Considers Joining Publishers In Fight To Stamp Out Fair Use At Universities
Demeter
Feb 2013
#8
Quelle Surprise! Prosecutors Get Tough on Mortgage Fraud….At an Itty Bitty Bank
Demeter
Feb 2013
#10
Bill Black:Yglesias Pours Geithner, Holder, Breuer (GHB) Banksters Immunity Doctrine in our Drinks
Demeter
Feb 2013
#11
Yet Another Cost of Doing Business Fine: Lender Processing Services Settles with 46 Attorneys Genera
Demeter
Feb 2013
#13
Richard Koo Debunks “Deleveraging is Almost Done, American Consumer Getting Ready for Good Times"
Demeter
Feb 2013
#26
‘There Is A Drone With Assange’s Name On It’ - William Blum / Interview By John Robles
Demeter
Feb 2013
#31
The Untouchables Video FRONTLINE examines why no Wall St. execs have faced fraud charges
Demeter
Feb 2013
#34
America's Baby Bust The nation's falling fertility rate is the root cause of many of our problems.
Demeter
Feb 2013
#40