Economy

The World Economic Forum’s Klaus Schwab on What Lies Ahead

Published

2 years ago

January 17, 2023

The World Economic Forum may be returning to its long-standing ritual of meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January, but—even as the pandemic ebbs—this is still a time of remarkable upheaval. WEF founder Klaus Schwab sat down in New York City with TIME’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal to discuss what’s ahead for Davos and the global economy.

A couple of times when we’ve had these conversations, I’ve asked you about what the impact of a real economic downturn might be on the tension between stakeholders and shareholders. And here we are, with the economy facing some real headwinds. Do you see any retreat from the movement toward stakeholder capitalism?

I think it’s the wrong approach, from the beginning on, to create a choice between shareholder capitalism vs. stakeholder capitalism. The company is not just an economic unit: it’s a social organism, which has to play its role inside society. This generation expects from a company not just to serve shareholders, but to take care of people and the planet. The company who keeps this in mind will have much better talent in the future and will have much higher attractivity with its customers.

But there is some tension. You can’t fully take care of your people if you’re laying off 13,000 workers.

No, in your practical decisions as a CEO, you have to make compromises. At a certain moment, the balance may shift more to the short term—which is to emphasize, let’s say, the profitability of the company. And other times it may shift more to the long term.

There aren’t many people in the world who talk regularly to as many CEOs and world leaders as you do. What are you hearing and feeling about the economic outlook for ’23?

I wouldn’t relate it only to ’23. We are in a restructuring of the global economy. When you have a restructuring in a company, you write off the costs on your balance sheet, and shareholders are suffering and sometimes employees have to go. But when you have a restructuring of an economy, it bites into the purchasing power of the people. We should not look at the global economy with a crisis mindset and a short-term approach. We have to manage in a strategic way this transformation period, which may last three, four, five years and will be socially very painful.

The company is not just an economic unit: it’s a social organism.

You made the unprecedented decision last year to ban Russia from Davos.

We immediately followed the global sanction policies, so we froze all our relationships with Russia.

And that continues?

That continues.

The first time I came into contact with the crypto world at all was at Davos. After the collapse of FTX and the broader challenges over the past four or five months, what do you make of that market?

I’m a big fan of new technologies, so we [at the World Economic Forum] were always very engaged in the development of crypto. But it’s a fact that technological development is so complex and so fast, that sometimes it’s very difficult for political [institutions] to comprehend the significance of a certain new development, and even more difficult to create the necessary boundaries around it. So I’m not surprised about what happened. Crypto will remain. But now we have to make sure crypto is integrated into, or at least made congruent with, our traditional systems.

Now you’re working on bringing the World Economic Forum into the metaverse.

A year ago, when Meta had changed its name, I became curious what [the metaverse] is and could it have an impact, as you did with crypto. So I asked many people, What does it really mean? Everybody gave to me a different answer. And for me, it became very clear: it’s the capability to meet in a virtual three-dimensional room. I mean, you have two levels. First is just to meet around a table with your avatars. And second, is to combine it with an immersive experience—and that’s what we will do in Davos.

We will showcase in Davos what we call the Global Collaboration Village and inaugurate it in the summer next year. This has such an importance because it can make global collaboration more open; you always can convene the most relevant and the most knowledgeable people. And second, it makes it more sustained, because you can work together on a continued basis, and not just come together for a physical meeting and then nothing happens for quite some time again. We created a community, which has at the moment 70 members, whom we call Village Partners, who support us. [Salesforce, whose chair and CEO is TIME’s co-owner Marc Benioff, is a Village Partner.] I feel this could be a game changer in global collaboration.

What brings you optimism in this challenging time?

I’m always an optimist—and if I tend to become a pessimist, I just think of my mentor Shimon Peres, who explained in Davos once the difference between optimists and pessimists: both, in principle, have the same lives, but optimists have a much happier life. This situation which we are in now is not the worst of all the times. It’s a bad one. But at the end, change is what’s happening. We can manage change.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Source link

Economy

Liberals announce expansion to mortgage eligibility, draft rights for renters, buyers

Published

7 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government is making some changes to mortgage rules to help more Canadians to purchase their first home.

She says the changes will come into force in December and better reflect the housing market.

The price cap for insured mortgages will be boosted for the first time since 2012, moving to $1.5 million from $1 million, to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.

The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.

On Aug. 1 eligibility for the 30-year amortization was changed to include first-time buyers purchasing a newly-built home.

Justice Minister Arif Virani is also releasing drafts for a bill of rights for renters as well as one for homebuyers, both of which the government promised five months ago.

Virani says the government intends to work with provinces to prevent practices like renovictions, where landowners evict tenants and make minimal renovations and then seek higher rents.

The government touts today’s announced measures as the “boldest mortgage reforms in decades,” and it comes after a year of criticism over high housing costs.

The Liberals have been slumping in the polls for months, including among younger adults who say not being able to afford a house is one of their key concerns.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

Source link

Economy

Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales up 1.4% in July at $71B

Published

7 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales rose 1.4 per cent to $71 billion in July, helped by higher sales in the petroleum and coal and chemical product subsectors.

The increase followed a 1.7 per cent decrease in June.

The agency says sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector gained 6.7 per cent to total $8.6 billion in July as most refineries sold more, helped by higher prices and demand.

Chemical product sales rose 5.3 per cent to $5.6 billion in July, boosted by increased sales of pharmaceutical and medicine products.

Sales of wood products fell 4.8 per cent for the month to $2.9 billion, the lowest level since May 2023.

In constant dollar terms, overall manufacturing sales rose 0.9 per cent in July.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

Source link

Economy

S&P/TSX gains almost 100 points, U.S. markets also higher ahead of rate decision

Published

3 days ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets climbed to their best week of the year.

“It’s been almost a complete opposite or retracement of what we saw last week,” said Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at IG Wealth Management.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.

While last week saw a “healthy” pullback on weaker economic data, this week investors appeared to be buying the dip and hoping the central bank “comes to the rescue,” said Petursson.

Next week, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for the first time in several years after it significantly hiked it to fight inflation.

But the magnitude of that first cut has been the subject of debate, and the market appears split on whether the cut will be a quarter of a percentage point or a larger half-point reduction.

Petursson thinks it’s clear the smaller cut is coming. Economic data recently hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been that bad either, he said — and inflation may have come down significantly, but it’s not defeated just yet.

“I think they’re going to be very steady,” he said, with one small cut at each of their three decisions scheduled for the rest of 2024, and more into 2025.

“I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed that they have to do something immediately.

A larger cut could also send the wrong message to the markets, added Petursson: that the Fed made a mistake in waiting this long to cut, or that it’s seeing concerning signs in the economy.

It would also be “counter to what they’ve signaled,” he said.

More important than the cut — other than the new tone it sets — will be what Fed chair Jerome Powell has to say, according to Petursson.

“That’s going to be more important than the size of the cut itself,” he said.

In Canada, where the central bank has already cut three times, Petursson expects two more before the year is through.

“Here, the labour situation is worse than what we see in the United States,” he said.

The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.

The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

Source link