Economic Forum

LONDON -- Surging oil prices, the bulging U.S. budget deficit, the new powerhouses of China and India, and a world without Alan Greenspan will be the hot topics for world leaders meeting this week at the Swiss resort of Davos for the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum. Some of the world's biggest political names, including Germany's new chancellor Angela Merkel, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and China's Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, will mix and mingle with such corporate and financial chieftains as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, international financier George Soros and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.

From: Sheri HappelEllicott CityAfter reading "Ecker warns of further $1.1 million cut in school budget" (Howard County Sun, March 15, by James M. Coram), I began to wonder if there wasn't another area from which money may possibly be taken.It seems that if Ecker really wanted to save the education budget, he could find a way to do so. By taking money out of less crucial budgets, he would be protecting possibly one of the most important groups of people -- the children who are the future.I understand the economic situation of the county, but I can't see the reasoning behind more educational cuts because it seems that education funding is always the first to go.I definitely agree with C. Vernon Gray when he said that the county will lose teachers if they don't get some sort of pay raise.

A key aide to County Executive Charles I. Ecker plans to form a think tank to help local government find alternative ways to deliver services.Members will be selected from those who attended a government-sponsored leadership conference last weekend, said Beverly M. Wilhide, Ecker's chief administrative assistant. The group will use information gleaned from the conference to start its deliberations, she said.Each person attending the conference was asked to fill out a cardoffering three solutions for county government to think about.

IF THE MOST VEXING problem afflicting the economy is a deep crisis of confidence, then reassurance is found less in yesterday's presidential dog-and-pony show in Waco than in the one-page notarized forms now filtering into the Securities and Exchange Commission from the CEOs of the nation's largest corporations. At his Texas economic forum, President George W. Bush sought to get ahead of an economic downturn given staying power by continuing revelations of corporate abuses. "I'm incredibly optimistic," he proclaimed.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney urged Europe yesterday to join the United States in promoting democracy in Iran and the Arab world, saying that democracy can deter terrorism. "Helping the people of the greater Middle East to overcome the democratic deficit is ultimately key to winning the war on terrorism," he said in a speech in Davos, Switzerland. At the same time, Cheney added, "Direct threats require decisive action," and he declared that the world's democracies must send an "unmistakable message" that "the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction only invites isolation and carries great costs."

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Leading trade ministers embraced an unusual game plan yesterday for reviving trade talks, saying they would try to hash out details on technical issues first, rather than agreeing on the broad outlines of an accord before negotiations resume. During a meeting at the World Economic Forum, officials from the United States, the European Union and emerging markets like India and Brazil vowed to move forward again in the Doha round of World Trade Organization talks, which began more than five years ago in the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar but collapsed last July because of disagreements about farm subsidies and tariff cuts.

DAVOS, Switzerland -- During the 11 years I've attended the World Economic Forum here, the United States has been lionized as the world leader and economic giant, home of high-tech wizards. When the high-tech bubble burst, deficits rose and the Iraq war went sour, the shine on the American model dimmed. But few here used to question America's role as the world's sole leading power. However, Davos 2008 has laid bare a world in which no superpower seems to be in charge. The unipolar American moment is deemed over - in part a casualty of Bush political and economic policies, in larger part the result of global economic changes that are shifting wealth elsewhere.

WASHINGTON - For months, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has been the Bush administration's leading advocate of diplomacy, patiently applied, to rally the international community behind a campaign of pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to cooperate with United Nations inspectors. Yesterday, responding to the U.N. inspectors' report, he sounded less like a diplomat. "Iraq's time for choosing peaceful disarmament is fast coming to an end," he declared. Powell insists that he has been consistent throughout, arguing that he has always supported diplomacy backed by force.

In one of his first major addresses as a candidate for Baltimore County executive, James T. Smith Jr. outlined yesterday for the Greater Baltimore Economic Forum his plans to reinvigorate community involvement in government, emphasize redevelopment over new building and expand inpatient drug-treatment facilities. Smith, a Democrat, also said he would consider ordering a management audit of county government. The recently retired circuit judge said that for the past 14 years he has seen the county's problems in the cases passing through his courtroom.

WHO CAN FORGET the pockmarked face of Ukrainian President Viktor A. Yushchenko after his soup apparently was poisoned by dioxin during the recent presidential campaign? Tens of thousands of Ukrainians demonstrated peacefully against the rigging of the election in favor of Mr. Yushchenko's opponent, who was openly backed by Ukraine's big neighbor, Russia. Miraculously, grass-roots pressure worked - with European and U.S. support. A rematch on Dec. 26 reversed the election results. Recently, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, I asked Mr. Yushchenko the $64,000 question: "Do you know who tried to kill you?"