The World Economic Forum: Does it really matter?

IN the 1949 film adaptation of Graham Greene’s The Third Man, Harry Lime points out that 500 years of peace, brotherly love and democracy in Switzerland had produced nothing more exciting than the cuckoo clock.

IN the 1949 film adaptation of Graham Greene’s The Third Man, Harry Lime points out that 500 years of peace, brotherly love and democracy in Switzerland had produced nothing more exciting than the cuckoo clock. We can now, though, add the World Economic Forum — held annually since 1977 in Davos — to Switzerland’s list of questionable achievements, although it’s fair to concede that it was created by a German.

Originally conceived as an assembly at which European and American business folks could exchange ideas for improving management techniques, it’s morphed into an invitation-only gathering of the great, the good and not-so-good in politics, business and education.