More than 2000 business and political leaders have for 5 days discussed how best to tackle what is now being called ‘the crisis of capitalism’. They found no collective answer. Mostly, the problems, and not the solution, were discussed. This was not quite in tune with the forum’s official theme this year; shaping the post-crisis world. That was a bit premature.

Nobody at the World Economic Forum disputed the prediction that the world and the global economy is heading in to a deep and prolonged recession. Nobody knew how far we have come into the crisis, and nobody knew how far we have yet to go. They all agreed that we’re in trouble, but not one could come up with a solution or a prediction on how long this will go on. What is sure is that there will be massive job cuts, the price of property will continue to fall sharply, the banks will still be in trouble and more and more people will have their homes repossessed.

Is it right for governments to borrow money to pour in to banks and other financial institutions? To boost certain industries to try to counter-act the effects of the global credit crunch? Will these measures be of any service to the poorest people in the rest of the world? We all seem to forget that the global credit crunch is also affecting the people who are already finding life too hard; the poorest people in the third world. What is being done to help them through this?