TimesOnline: Even in the Alps, capitalism's elite can't stay above the economic crisis - by Gary Duncan

For the complete report from the Times Online click on this link

Even in the Alps, capitalism's elite can't stay above the economic crisis - by Gary Duncan

This year's World Economic Forum in Davos has been described as the most crucial in the event's 40-year history. For the VIP delegates taking part, the challenge will be to find ways to survive the global turmoil. Next week, for the movers and shakers of the planet's corporate elite who will flock here, the only place to be is the annual Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum. Yet this time it is a very different Davos that awaits, with an atmosphere unlike any in the 40-year history of these starry gatherings of political titans, corporate sultans and academic luminaries. Over the past decade, the five-day Davos gathering has become celebrated as the rallying point for a vaguely triumphalist celebration of capitalism and globalisation, especially in its financial guise.

Yet this year must mark a radical and distinct shift in the atmosphere. Capitalism is, after more than a year of vast, once-in-a-century upheavals for the world's financial system, in the midst of a near-existential crisis. Months of economic and financial turmoil will cast a long, dark shadow across the normally sunny mood in Davos. For the participants, this is Shangri-La no more.