| Hello and welcome to Davos, where the penultimate day of the World Economic Forum's annual meetings is drawing to a close. I'm Craig Stirling, a senior economics editor, and today we're looking at Trump's speech. 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.
Only one individual really mattered in Davos this week. When he finally appeared, he wasn't even there — but on video. Since Donald Trump took the oath of office as US president on Monday, multiple executive orders and threats of tariffs coming out of Washington have left attendees in Switzerland with little else to talk about. So when he finally began his virtual address, the forum's main hall was rapt. "I would have been there myself," he explained. "I thought it might be a little bit quick to make it the first stop. But we'll get there one day." His speech, followed up by questions from a quartet of CEOs, was classic Trump. Pledging a "revolution of common sense," he vowed to "solve every single crisis facing our country."  Trump addresses Davos. Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg Trump listed a litany of complaints about the policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden, promised "the largest tax cut in American history" and "the largest deregulation campaign in history" and then gave a stark warning to the global companies that were clearly well represented in the room. "My message to every business in the world is very simple: come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth," he said. "But if you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff." His remarks covered a panoply of topics: immigration, China, nuclear weapons, monetary policy and gender politics were just some of the matters he touched. Ukraine was a particular focus, and he said he will meet Russian President Vladimir. And he urged Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations to "bring down the cost of oil." Even the company chiefs asking him questions didn't escape his criticism, with Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told to "start opening your bank to conservatives." Some groups have claimed that they are not able to access banks including Bank of America, and that "is wrong," Trump said. At the end of his session, the president got a polite round of applause. Now Davos has even more to talk about than before. - Pent-up demand for M&A, particularly among private equity firms, is poised to spur a surge in deal activity, Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said.
- NATO chief Mark Rutte backed Trump's pressure campaign against Russia aimed at halting its war on Ukraine.
- Saudi Arabia has investments of more than $770 billion in the US and said it expects relations with Washington "will continue to be flourishing" as the kingdom pursues its broad economic overhaul.
- Finance executives are targeting the Middle East, with many attending Davos to win business from governments and investors in the region.
- TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne urged the European Union to amend regulations to foster corporate "champions."
- Switzerland's trade with the US is significant and tariffs would hurt its economy, Swiss National Bank chief Martin Schlegel said.
Some Davos attendees can't get enough of the place. Earlier this week for example, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers revealed that his visits to the forum span the best part of five decades. For anyone who just won't tire of the event, the CEO of artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, Dario Amodei, has a tantalizing prospect to prolong their enjoyment: living much longer. At a panel on technology, he predicted a "great acceleration" in his field. "My guess is that we can make 100 years of progress in areas like biology in five or 10 years if we really get this AI stuff right," Amodei said. "If you think about what we might expect humans to accomplish in an areas like biology in 100 years, I think a doubling of the human life span is not at all crazy. And then if AI is able to accelerate that, we may be able to get that in five to 10 years." Davos has just another half day to run, but some big names there still have plenty to say. Watch Bloomberg Television tomorrow for interviews with Merck CEO Belen Garijo, Euroclear chief Valérie Urbain and EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. In the conference center itself, the WEF's grand finale will be a panel on the global economy, featuring the heads of the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, and BlackRock's Larry Fink too. Elsewhere in the World Economy | - The number of Americans on benefit rolls climbed to a more than three-year high.
- Turkey's central bank cut borrowing costs for a second straight month. Norway meanwhile primed investors for a move in March.
- Mexico's inflation slowed slightly more than expected in early January, keeping in play chances of a bigger rate cut.
- Japan's trade surplus with the US last year far surpassed its average levels during Trump's first term, risking his ire.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment