The Wall Street Journal-20080124-Davos 2008- Best of the Daily Davos - Updates From the World Economic Forum in Davos- Switzerland
Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080124
Davos 2008: Best of the Daily Davos / Updates From the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
Soros Calls for 'New Sheriff'
To Regulate Financial Markets
Billionaire George Soros called yesterday for a massive injection of regulation and oversight for financial markets, saying that the lack of restraints on the markets has caused "not a normal crisis but the end of an era."
The Hungarian-born financier and philanthropist, a participant in the World Economic Forum, called for the creation of a "new sheriff" for global finance -- details to be worked out later.
In finance, Mr. Soros is famous for a 1992 bet against the British pound that made $1 billion for his Quantum hedge fund; in politics, he is known for his left-leaning views and contributions, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2006 that the "war on terror is a false metaphor that has led to counterproductive and self-defeating policies" and calling the Iraq war a blunder.
The 77-year-old Mr. Soros blamed the current credit crunch on the Federal Reserve for keeping U.S. interest rates too low for too long.
Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, "will not look good in retrospect," he said, adding successor Ben Bernanke also bore some of the blame since "the Fed has been somewhat asleep at the wheel."
On the credit-driven housing bubble, "It became a free-for-all," Mr. Soros said. One unhealthy result: "The appreciation of houses replaced traditional savings."
Mr. Soros said "old fogies like me" saw the crisis coming and even expected it earlier. But ever the hedger of bets, he said: "It is possible that I'm exaggerating the dangers. I've done it before."
-- Associated Press
Soda Giants Offer Aid For Water Programs
Criticized by activists for their use of water around the world, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have stepped up their efforts to promote sustainable water practices and cut their own water use.
As the forum got under way yesterday, PepsiCo said it is giving $6 million to Columbia University's Earth Institute and $2.5 million to actor Matt Damon's H2O Africa Foundation to provide clean water to communities in Africa, India, China and Brazil.
The Earth Institute, directed by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, will receive $6 million over three years from the PepsiCo Foundation to identify community-based solutions to improve water access and productivity, PepsiCo says. PepsiCo will give Mr. Damon's organization $2.5 million over the next year for on-the-ground water projects in Niger, Mali, Senegal and other African countries. Important to PepsiCo is to fund water projects and activities that can be scaled and replicated in other communities, a company spokeswoman says.
PepsiCo's chairman and chief executive, Indra Nooyi, is a co-chair of this year's forum, which is expected to focus, among other things, on the world's growing thirst for -- and shortage of -- clean water. Seven panels on water issues are planned. Ms. Nooyi plans to highlight PepsiCo's new investment and call other companies to action, according to a spokeswoman.
Coke says it and its bottlers have launched 120 projects in 50 countries in the past couple of years. A report released last week by a nonprofit organization in India found Coke generally in compliance with government environmental standards for water use there but concluded that it needs to do more to help improve local water supplies.
-- Betsy McKay
ANC's Zuma Blames West for Africa's Ills
Jacob Zuma, the new head of the African National Congress in South Africa, said Western governments and companies are behind endemic corruption, poverty and other social ills in Africa. "In fact, [those things] have been enforced by the world on Africa," Mr. Zuma said at the forum.
The South African government has charged Mr. Zuma with money laundering, fraud and racketeering stemming from a multimillion-dollar weapons scandal. Mr. Zuma has said that the charges against him are bogus. His trial is scheduled for August.
-- Spencer Swartz
