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Mick Jagger’s Davos Top Ten

TOP celebrity at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos was Sir Mick Jagger, front-man of the Rolling Stones (and longtime Economist reader). At his various appearances in the Swiss Alpine resort, he asked questions, joked, briefly shook his legendary hips, but refused to sing. Had he done so, here are a few tunes from his back catalogue that would have captured the mood

By M.B. | DAVOS

TOP celebrity at this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos was Sir Mick Jagger, front-man of the Rolling Stones (and longtime Economist reader). At his various appearances in the Swiss Alpine resort, he asked questions, joked, briefly shook his legendary hips, but refused to sing. Had he done so, here are a few tunes from his back catalogue that would have captured the mood.

“Paint It Black”: Gloom was the official on-stage state of mind at this year's Davos. The toxic combination of the euro crisis and the ubiquity of longtime Cassandras such as George Soros, Martin Wolf of the Financial Times and Nouriel “Dr Doom” Roubini was more than enough to give anyone a 19th nervous breakdown. In private conversations, however, there was a bit more optimism, though no one was getting carried away. Cautious encouragement was taken from better recent economic news in America and, above all, a shift towards activism by the European Central Bank, which was seen by many as greatly reducing the risk of a catastrophic failure in the banking system.

“Angie”. She is not his usual type, but Sir Mick has the perfect ballad for the top political star of this year's Davos. Sadly, Angela Merkel's keynote failed to answer his question, “When will those clouds all disappear?”

“Some Girls”. There was much comment about the fact that Davos Men still far outnumber Davos Women. (In the Congress Centre, that is, where the serious talking is done. Curiously, at the many Davos parties, the gender balance is somehow evened up considerably, even as the age gap widens.) Aside from the Chancellor of Germany, the most prominent females on stage this year were two pioneers of social media, Arianna Huffington and Sheryl Sandberg, who was talked about less for the upcoming initial public offering of Facebook, where she is chief operating officer, than her long-term political ambitions (Treasury Secretary? President?). According to WEF, the percentage of women participants this year was 17%, which is progress of sorts from 9% ten years ago, but still far too low. At least there is gender parity in the WEF's new under-30s youth wing, the “Global Shapers”, who were given prominent roles in this year's Davos.

“Sympathy for the Devil”. The public image of the sort of political and business leaders who attend Davos has never been worse, and a large part of the agenda was given over to worrying about inequality and how to redesign capitalism to make it produce more inclusive growth and jobs. Yet your correspondent was struck by how many of the capitalists he encountered—especially from the Newt Gingrich-bashed private-equity industry—felt that their current unpopularity was undeserved, so this Rolling Stones classic about why the baddest of all bad guys at least deserves some courtesy would have gone down a treat.

"Gimme Shelter". The Occupy movement has benefited from all that public anger towards leaders. The protestors who turned up in Davos found themselves occupying a few yurts and giant igloos in a coach park a long way from the Congress Centre. Particularly in need of shelter were three female protesters from Ukraine who removed their shirts to reveal chests emblazoned with slogans such as “Crisis: Made in Davos”.

Representatives of Occupy were invited to take part in a WEF public meeting, which they tried to disrupt only to be voted out by the vast majority of the audience, who seemed actually to want to discuss how to remodel the capitalist system. The speakers included Ed Milliband, the leader of Britain's Labour Party, and Stephen Roach, a veteran Wall Street economist.

“Time Is On My Side”. Two dynastic youngsters had a Davos coming out: Howard Buffett, grandson of Warren, is one of the Global Shapers; Chelsea Clinton moderated a roundtable on e-philanthropy. Expect them to become Davos regulars in the years to come. (On the subject of giving, Bill Gates turned up as usual, this year celebrating the 10th birthday of the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an innovative approach to fighting disease that was born in Davos in 2002. Surprise guests at the celebration dinner included Mr Jagger and notable signatories of the “giving pledge” launched by Mr Gates and the elder Mr Buffett, George Soros and Ray Dallio, boss of Bridgewater, the world's biggest hedge fund company. Mr Gates gave a vote of confidence to the Fund, which has been criticised for mismanaging money, announcing a new grant of $750m.)

“Street Fighting Man”. A year ago, the start of the Arab Spring caused considerable excitement and enthusiasm in Davos. This year, the focus was more on the difficulty of democratising the Middle East than the potential for positive change. The most upbeat speaker was Hammadi Jebali, the newly-elected president of Tunisia. On the other hand, there was a growing sense that some sort of military strike against Iran's nuclear program is inevitable this year, probably led by Israel.

“Start Me Up”. The most optimistic people in Davos came largely from the tech industry, which was represented by some of its biggest stars. As well as Ms Sandberg, there was Eric Schmidt of Google, John Donahoe of eBay, Sean Parker of Napster and Facebook fame, and several faces of European tech, including Niklas Zennstrom, a co-founder of Skype. All seemed convinced that entrepreneurship can answer everything from worries about the shortage of jobs to how to accelerate solving big social problems, from ending disease to giving everyone a decent education.

“Brown Sugar”. An unusual abundance of snow did not deflect Davos goers from their usual drug of choice, alcohol. The dozens of parties in the Belverdere Hotel were as crowded as ever, with the McKinsey and Google parties the best (as usual), though an excellent choice of band enabled PriceWaterhouseCoopers to give McKinsey a run for its money. An event hosted by Skybridge Capital, a hedge fund, in support of an organization combining philanthropy with buying fine wine, was perhaps the best party in the Piano Bar at the Hotel Europe, where in the wee small hours of the morning chief executives can be found leading the singing.

The big disappointment was the closing gala, hosted this year by Brazil, where before midnight the cocktail waiters ran out of alcohol to put in the caipirinha. This national embarrassment added to the sense that Brazil had put on a poor show in Davos, with its president, Dilma Rousseff, preferring to stay away and instead attend the rival World Social Forum. No such complaints could be heard about Mexico, which the previous night threw a bash where margarita flowed like water, whilst a beaming President Calderon enthusiastically shook hands.

And to finish? If the choice was made by the public, looking on from afar, Sir Mick surely would have to end his Davos show with that anthem to frustration, “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.” At the end of five days of big thoughts, fierce debate, countless conversations and almost no sleep, your exhausted correspondent would have settled for “Shattered” followed, with mixed feelings, by “It's All Over Now.”

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