Davos, Switzerland

Friends, welcome to Part V of this journal, these jottings from the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, way up in the Alps: Thomas Mann country (no, I don’t mean L.A.). For the previous four parts, go here, here, here, and here.

One evening, I moderate, or “facilitate,” a dinner panel called “Political Art: What Now?” The term “political art” makes my blood run cold, because I think politics usually cheapens or corrupts art, and who knows? Art may cheapen and corrupt politics. But many people like the mixing, and it is not always illegitimate, so there you are.

I would like to mention the featured speakers at this dinner. There’s Romero Britto, a young American who was born in Brazil, and who paints and sculpts. He specializes in art that is optimistic, playful, and joyful–making him a rarity. There’s Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics. He also has strong ties to the Tate, the Royal Academy of Music, and other cultural institutions. Marc Forster is a film director, responsible for such movies as The Kite Runner and Quantum of Solace, the Bond flick. He lives in L.A., of course. But guess where he’s from? Right here in Davos. Local Boy Makes Pretty Darn Good.

There’s a Russian artist–a painter–named Alyona Kirtsova. There’s Richard Kogan, who is both a pianist and a psychiatrist. He combines the two, too, co-chairing the Music/Medicine Initiative at Cornell. Not every day do you meet a man who studied at both the Juilliard School and Harvard Medical School.

Louise Neri is the director of the Gagosian Gallery in New York. And Mallika Sarabhai is a very famous dancer from India (Gujarat province). She runs the Darpana Academy of the Performing Arts, which was founded by her mother.

‐I meet an interesting young journalist from La Croix, a French newspaper. “Is it religious?” I ask, as the name implies. Yes, says the journalist: “We are not affiliated with the Catholic Church, but we write from a Christian perspective–sort of like your Christian Science Monitor in America.” La Croix turns out to be the second-oldest paper in France: The oldest is, not Le Monde, but Le Figaro. And, like everybody else, La Croix is intensely trying to figure out what to do about the Web: Do they go online only? Do they retain a paper you can hold on to? Do the website and the paper have separate content? What?

These are interesting times for the media–great for media consumers, nerve-wracking for media owners and workers.

‐Taking center stage at the Congress Center is Angela Merkel, that remarkable woman: scientist, political theorist, politician–chancellor of Germany. As usual, she is sober and realistic–almost scientific. But she talks about optimism and confidence, too. When she does so, she does not sound terribly optimistic or confident. That is simply her manner: markedly unflamboyant.

And she sounds more like a social democrat than ever before–at least, in my exposure to her. Capitalism and its champions have been rocked back on their heels; Merkel seems jolted by recent events, as one might well.

In her speech, she denounces the “irresponsible speculation” that occurred, “particularly on the American real-estate market.” She further inveighs against “the excesses of the market”–the general market–and a lack of transparency. She says, “Markets must serve the real economy–and they have forgotten that, in recent times.” She notes that “freedom for the individual needs to be limited, if it takes freedom away from others.” And, more than once, she socks it to “unfettered capitalism.”

Have we seen much “unfettered capitalism”? Not in my lifetime, really, unless it took place in Hong Kong, Singapore, or some other such place. But even the most liberal (in the old sense) have “fetters.” Our problems, as a rule, have been too many fetters, not too few.

And Merkel does caution that we must not again succumb to “experiments with command economies.”

What is “essential now,” she says, is “to restore confidence”: for “confidence is a pillar without which companies won’t invest, banks won’t grant loans, and consumers won’t spend money.”

Merkel represents a car-making country, of course. And she is “worried” about America’s subsidies to its auto industry. She hopes that this subsidizing will not last long–“because it leads to distortion in the market and constitutes protectionism, quite frankly.”

And let there be no doubt that the chancellor is a “green bean” (to use Karl Rove’s term). She says, “I am pleased to hear that the United States is more open than it used to be” to dramatic action versus climate change. I wonder what she and her partners believe Obama, Pelosi, et al. will do. She further says that First World countries must set an example for Third World countries, although, of course, she does not use exactly this language.

And here is a bit of a headline: Merkel proposes some sort of Global Economic Council, to go with the U.N. Security Council.

And I will give you something of a sidenote: She has occasion to talk about “the terrible crimes committed by the National Socialists in my country.” Whenever I use “National Socialists,” instead of “Nazis,” I get lefty mailing saying–sneering–snarling–“What are you trying to imply, Nordlinger?” (Nothing–just calling something by its right, self-given name.)

Merkel ends her speech with a little uplift–she mentions her upbringing in Communist Germany, as she often does: “I grew up in the GDR, and I am now chancellor of a united, federal Germany. This shows me that nothing is impossible. Even this worldwide financial crisis can be mastered,” and “we can master it in such a way” as to take humanity well forward.

‐I meet an interesting man named Bill Loris. He is an American, but has lived abroad for some 40 years or so. He is in the “development game,” as he says. And he works in Rome with an organization that is particularly concerned with the rule of law–because, without the rule of law, there can hardly be any progress, and development dollars go to complete waste. Corruption is a killer of charitable efforts, in Africa and elsewhere.

So, Loris is my kind of player in the development game: someone with his eye firmly on what matters most. May his kind multiply.

‐Want to know a man with an astonishing international life? His name is Carlos Ghosn, and let me give you a little of his bio: Ghosn is “a Brazilian-born Lebanese businessman. He is the current CEO and President of Renault of France and Nissan of Japan.” There was a cartoon in Japan made of Ghosn’s life. I don’t wonder.

‐Now on center stage is Gordon Brown, the prime minister of Britain, and he is being questioned by Christiane Amanpour, the famed CNN personality. (Remember how well-known Oriana Fallaci was, decades ago? A similar thing–although, of course, La Fallaci was very different in her opinions from Ms. Amanpour.)

Brown is habitually described as dour, although I don’t find him so, really: Rather like Merkel, he is simply unflamboyant. And that can be rather refreshing in politics. For a half-hour or so, he talks as much like an econ prof as a politician or prime minister–and he is good at it (talking like an econ prof). He is fairly sanguine about the world economic situation, and he has his reasons. He is keen for people to know that we are in “a global banking crisis”–not a crisis of inflation and other such things. And, “if you don’t understand what the problem is, you’re not going to get the solution.”

He talks about what we have been learning–and cites Titian, who, at a great age, when he reached his last painting, said, “I’m finally beginning to learn how to paint.” “That is where we are,” says Brown: “We’ve been learning all the time about how to deal with problems for which we have no historical analogies to fall back on. When the problems of the 1930s hit, the world did not have the global financial markets we have today.”

Brown says that “there’s an implicit protectionism in what’s happening at the moment”–implicit protectionism, to go with the more explicit kind. For example, countries that have foreign banks in them have seen a flight of capital–that capital is going home. Brown warns of what he calls “financial isolationism,” and mercantilism, and other parts of “the new protectionism.”

Amanpour brings up the Bank of Scotland, of which the British government now owns 70 percent, apparently. Says Brown, “This is not about whether to nationalize banks or not–this is about the resumption of lending, and how that can happen.” And he says something we often hear these days: that the word “credit” relates to “belief” or “trust.” What we are having–as, again, everyone says–is “a crisis of confidence” and of “trust in the banking system.”

Brown says, “We want to reward hard work and enterprise–people who show great innovation or talent. That is what must be rewarded.” I’m thinking, “This is a British Labour leader? Really? Mr. Foot didn’t sound like that, when I was coming of age–neither did Mr. Kinnock, not to mention Tony Benn.” (And, of course, Joe Biden sounded like Neil Kinnock–though less musical and articulate.)

But Brown quickly cautions against laissez-faire. (Not much of that going around.) And he cites with great, smiling approval the old socialist John Kenneth Galbraith, who–according to Brown–spoke at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of post-war Austria. Sitting in the first row were Hayek and other such greats, and he thanked them for what they had done. (This is according to Brown.) Because, if they hadn’t left Austria in 1945, the country would not have been able to enjoy the economic growth that came from social-democratic policies.

Personally speaking, I’ll take a strand of Hayek’s hair over JKG’s entire, extremely long body.

Says Brown, “These are progressive times,” and “you mustn’t leave everything to markets.” At the same time, “we can’t be anti-market, anti-globalization, anti-business.” We must watch two opposite tendencies: the tendency to “retreat into protectionism” and the tendency to “retreat into doing nothing.” (I myself haven’t heard many politicians argue for staying the governmental hand.)

It’s a bit hard to know where exactly Brown stands. But maybe he stands squarely in the Third Way.

What’s clear is this, and Brown is right as rain: “It is ridiculous to think that institutions built for solving the problems of the 1940s can work to solve the problems of 2009.” We need a new order, a new Bretton Woods, Brown says. And “we should be financing a low-carbon economy.” Brown cites Rahm Emanuel, who apparently has said, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste”–let’s take advantage of it. Brown agrees and approves.

During a brief audience Q&A, a woman stands up and essentially gives her opinions–tart ones–instead of asking a proper journalistic question. She has identified herself as with the BBC.

‐Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan takes the podium, and, at the beginning of his speech, says something absolutely charming. He says (in English), “I’m sure you won’t want to hear my speech in lousy English, so I will give it in good Japanese. Please put your headphones on” (which will provide a simultaneous translation).

Aso gives a solid speech–not necessarily sexy–and one line in particular jumps through my headphones: “We will resolutely fight all protectionism.” Sounds good to me, prime minister.

Have you had enough, Davosites, for one installment? The previous four have been terribly long–maybe oppressively long. This one’s more digestible. Let’s stop now, and resume tomorrow, with another prime minister: this one from Thailand (and Eton and Oxford).