Saudis to Davos: Move on from Khashoggi, let's do business

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - If you somehow missed the news about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents and the global outcry that ensued, you might think Saudi Arabia is the darling of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The kingdom has sent one of its strongest delegations ever to the Swiss mountain resort and packed its top executives’ agendas with meetings with international peers.

It has managed to secure top Western businessmen for a panel debate on ‘Next Steps for Saudi Arabia’, where French oil major Total’s chief executive Patrick Pouyanne and Morgan Stanley’s boss James Gorman spoke alongside the Saudi finance and economy ministers. The Davos gathering in the Swiss Alps is a chance for the Saudis to try to put behind them months of intense criticism over the murder of Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October. His killing by a team of Saudi operatives provoked widespread revulsion and tarnished the image of the crown prince, previously admired in the West for pushing deep changes including tax reform, infrastructure projects and allowing women to drive. At Davos, the signs are that the damage control is working.

Swiss President Ueli Maurer said on Wednesday his country has moved on, and wanted to build strong relations with Riyadh, a rich, oil-producing kingdom that is itself a major global investor. “We have long since dealt with the Khashoggi case… We have agreed to continue the financial dialogue and normalize relations again,” Maurer told Swiss news agency SDA.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-davos-meeting-saudi-investors/saudis-to-davos-move-on-from-khashoggi-lets-do-business-idUSKCN1PI0TZ

Trump plan to fund border wall, reopen government falls short in Senate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday cast sufficient votes to block a bill backed by President Donald Trump that would have ended a record-long partial federal government shutdown by funding the wall he wants to build on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Even as voting continued, enough senators had voted against the measure to deprive it of the 60 votes needed for it to advance in the 100-member chamber.

Upon completion of the tally, the Senate was set to vote on a competing measure from Democrats that would reopen government agencies until Feb. 8, giving Trump and Congress more time to negotiate over border security funding. The Senate is also expected to block that bill.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown/trump-delays-state-of-the-union-address-until-shutdown-ends-idUSKCN1PH14I?il=0

Why Davos is talking about the fight between two absentees

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The two most powerful men in the world are not in Davos this year, but they remain impossible to escape. In a sweeping speech at the World Economic Forum two years ago, President Xi Jinping argued that China was free trade’s greatest champion. Any attempt to stop the flow of capital, technology, goods, industries or people between economies “is simply not possible,” he said. Then in January last year, President Donald Trump arrived at the Swiss ski village to deliver his own “simple message: There has never been a better time to hire, to build, to invest and to grow in the United States. America is open for business.” Washington was committed to free trade, he said. But “we cannot have free and open trade if some countries exploit the system at the expense of others.” Neither leader mentioned their superpower rival. But it was clear that in setting out their boundaries for how global trade should work, they were talking to each other. If the last year is anything to go by, neither much listened. And the fallout from their falling out is why there’s so much talk about Xi, Trump and trade at this year’s Forum.

Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, told the audience at one session that some countries – she did not name which – were starting to pull away from the rules-based multilateral system built up over the past few decades. “If that is no longer the mainstream, we could be in trouble,” she said. Kevin Sneader, Global Managing Partner at McKinsey & Company, said that trade was just “one aspect of a broader tension between the U.S. and China.”

Already, the trade war between the two biggest economies in the world has begun to crimp global growth, to reshape supply chains and corporate planning, and to hit countries from Canada to Singapore. The International Monetary Fund trimmed its growth forecasts on the eve of this year’s Davos meeting, while a survey showed increasing pessimism among business chiefs. In the real world, the effects have been felt for months. Take Foxconn (2354.TW), which assembles Apple (AAPL.O) iPhones in China but now says it is considering building factories in Vietnam and India to help mitigate any impact from the trade war. Or automakers, who are busy changing where they build certain models to account for increased tariffs. Or countries such as Australia, whose currency, winemakers and home owners are all feeling the chill of the economic battle. People want to know “how much has the economy slowed and from a trade perspective what are these tariffs and what impact are the trade discussions really having,” said Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat in an interview with Reuters.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-davos-meeting-trump-xi-analysis/why-davos-is-talking-about-the-fight-between-two-absentees-idUSKCN1PH24S

>>4890449

I agree, I didn't have any expectation of this thing going through.

>>4890540

Media wants it all on his shoulders rather than where it actually belongs with all of the lawmakers on both sides of the fence.

>>4890581

Sounds like that is exactly what you would like, is that what you are hoping for?

>>4890625

Interesting!