| Hello and welcome to Davos, where the World Economic Forum has just ended with officials sharing an uneasy outlook for the global economy. I'm Craig Stirling, a senior economics editor, and today we're looking at key takeaways from this year's forum. Send us feedback and tips to ecodaily@bloomberg.net or get in touch on X via @economics. And if you're in Davos, don't forget to drop by Bloomberg House. Register here.
Davos loves talk, but it also adores action. Attendees thronged this week to hear Javier Milei recount his year of shock therapy on Argentina's economy. Donald Trump, three days and numerous executive orders into his own presidency, drew the biggest crowd of all. Contrast that with Olaf Scholz. Germany's chancellor, limping toward an election after three years of economic malaise and coalition stasis, addressed a hall far too big for his audience.  Olaf Scholz in Davos. Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg Davos's admiration for politicians who get stuff done points to the pervasive paradox haunting this year's World Economic Forum. Wide-eyed discussions on the fantastic promise offered by technologies such artificial intelligence preceded knowing shrugs on the struggle advanced economies face to satisfy voters' more basic needs. "Government is spending a lot of their money, government is taxing them quite highly, and the outcomes are quite poor," former UK premier Tony Blair mused on Thursday. "Government is all about process in the end, and about permissions, and about things like procurement." He was just one of several luminaries pondering how to overcome bureaucracy, inefficiency, vested interests and the treacle of legally required deliberation. UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves — preparing for a fight over a third runway at London's Heathrow — lamented that "the answer can't always be no" to infrastructure works and planning decisions.  Rachel Reeves at Bloomberg House in Davos. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg German Finance Minister Joerg Kukies observed that "the first thing where already we've made some progress but need to really move ahead ambitiously is to accelerate the planning and permissioning process in Europe. It just takes far too long." The European Union is an easy target. Given the chance, Trump didn't hold back, recalling an Irish project he once pursued that won local approval within a week before stalling in Brussels. But the president knows the US has glacial processes of its own — one motivation for his planned deregulatory wave. Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, no fan of Trump, wondered aloud to David Westin on Bloomberg Television if the president's zeal could work. "His force of personality may help him address the sclerosis with which we've sometimes dealt with getting things done quickly in the public sector," he said. "His impatience with business as usual may serve us well with respect to some regulatory barriers to new building."  David Rubenstein in Davos. Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg Trump's own four-year absence from government, offering time to think his next stint, might even assist him, according to Carlyle Group Co-Founder David Rubenstein. "Maybe a second term that's not consecutive might produce some good results," he said. "Time will tell."  | | | - Global inflation hasn't yet died and advanced economies outside China can't be complacent at a time of fickle consumers and trade tensions, according to the final Davos panel of 2025.
- Trump's decision to once again categorize the Houthi militant group in Yemen as a terrorist organization marks "the beginning of their end," according to the vice president of Yemen's UN-recognized government.
- The EU needs to do more to keep up with the US and China, according to Economics Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
- The EU must make sure it doesn't hurt its banking industry when it starts applying a sweeping set of capital rules, ABN Amro's CEO said.
- EDP may use the land of its coal plants in Spain that will be decommissioned for data centers.
- The home state of India's financial capital signed investment pledges worth $200 billion at Davos, with a majority coming from foreign investors, said Maharashtra's chief minister.
Elsewhere in the World Economy | - The Bank of Japan raised its key policy rate to the highest level since 2008 and took a more bullish view on the strength of inflation, fueling expectations for more rate hikes and supporting the yen.
- Inflation concerns are staging a comeback, raising questions over when the ECB may need to pause or halt rate cuts in the spring, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.
- The US Treasury said it's expanding its use of special accounting measures to avert breaching the federal debt limit, which kicked back in earlier this month.
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