Everybody needs heroes — even Davos plutocrats. But the “global elite” is currently out of enthusiasm and ideas.
In the corridors of the World Economic Forum last week, Kenneth Rogoff, the Harvard economist, summed it up: “This is the flattest Davos I can remember. Normally, there is a star country or a star industry that everybody is talking about. But this year, there is nothing.”
That enthusiasm deficit has implications well beyond the easily parodied world of the Davos conference. For the past 30 years, Davos has been the best place to monitor the ideas and crazes that were exciting the rich and powerful. It is the place where elite consensus was both formed and promoted.