The Davosian Decades

As the big German daily Die Zeit reports, the Intl. Monetary Fund (IMF) thinks that global growth will slow to 3.5% this year, down from 3.7% forecast a few months ago (imf.org ). What a disaster; it ought to put a crimp on the assembled economic and political leaders' annual confustications at the World Economic Forum (WEF) secretive meeting at Davos (Switzerland) this week. As participation is by invitation only and all speeches and discussions are strictly following the Chatham House Rules and hence are not made public, who knows what the future holds--not that any meaningful summary has ever been communicated from that "skiing-fest" in the Swiss Alps. It may be useful to look back at history, the long history of Earth, to get a glimpse of the future.