`Out of Control' Wall Street Chiefs Spurned Davos Warnings, Chose to Party

[marmar]

`Out of Control' CEOs Spurned Davos Warnings on Risk (Update1)

By A. Craig Copetas

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Once upon a time, the World Economic Forum was the ultimate Wall Street jamboree.

Now, in the riptide of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, WEF officials and delegates say many of the chief executive officers who gathered in Davos, Switzerland, over the last five years didn't listen to warnings from their peers. Davos organizers also say they failed to play tough with the financial-industry bosses, opting to accept their funding and let them turn Davos into a rave-up for Wall Street excesses.

``The partying crept in,'' says Klaus Schwab, the 70-year- old WEF founder and executive chairman. ``We let it get out of control, and attention was taken away from the speed and complexity of how the world's challenges built up.''

The fallout has left the WEF riddled in buyer's remorse, with officials throughout the organization asking what they have wrought and, like Wall Street, whether they offered too much of a good thing. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a9wVqOPk.T_4&refer=home