Davos 2009 Kicks Off With Dismal CEO Outlooks
CNBC/Reuters: CEO confidence plunges around the globe
Confidence among leaders of the world's top companies meeting in Davos has nosedived to a new low, with recession and a worsening credit crisis torpedoing faith in corporate prospects.
The findings from a poll of more than 1,100 CEOs sets a grim backdrop to a four-day meeting of the world's business and political elite which opens on Wednesday in the Swiss ski resort...
Poulter said the situation had deteriorated significantly since September, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and sale of Merrill Lynch.
Back in September, only 46 percent of business leaders interviewed thought the banking crisis would affect them but by December that had risen to 67 percent.
Worryingly, even this gloomy picture -- with confidence the lowest in the survey's seven-year history -- may be over-optimistic, given the slew of further bad news since it was completed in early December...
CNN: Economic Crisis Dominates Davos Agenda
(CNN) -- Heads of state, influential politicians, business leaders and global power brokers [gather] in the Swiss Alps... for the World Economic Forum -- with the perilous state of the planet's financial system set to top this year's agenda.
The mood at the annual meeting in the ski resort of Davos, which gets under way Wednesday January 28, is considered a key barometer of the economic weather ahead. And with the banking industry in crisis, western economies in recession, financial markets reeling from some of the worst retreats in recent history and many corporations slashing headcounts by the thousand it is perhaps no surprise that the mission statement of this year's event -- "Shaping the Post-Crisis World" -- offers a downbeat assessment of what lies in store for 2009 and beyond.
This year's five-day meeting will attract 2,500 participants from 96 countries, including a record 41 heads of state or government. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are among those addressing delegates on the opening day.
CNN Video:
Downward economic spiral?
Peter Levene gives CNN's Richard Quest insight to the troubles facing the world economy.
Confidence among leaders of the world's top companies meeting in Davos has nosedived to a new low, with recession and a worsening credit crisis torpedoing faith in corporate prospects.
The findings from a poll of more than 1,100 CEOs sets a grim backdrop to a four-day meeting of the world's business and political elite which opens on Wednesday in the Swiss ski resort...
Poulter said the situation had deteriorated significantly since September, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and sale of Merrill Lynch.
Back in September, only 46 percent of business leaders interviewed thought the banking crisis would affect them but by December that had risen to 67 percent.
Worryingly, even this gloomy picture -- with confidence the lowest in the survey's seven-year history -- may be over-optimistic, given the slew of further bad news since it was completed in early December...
CNN: Economic Crisis Dominates Davos Agenda
(CNN) -- Heads of state, influential politicians, business leaders and global power brokers [gather] in the Swiss Alps... for the World Economic Forum -- with the perilous state of the planet's financial system set to top this year's agenda.
The mood at the annual meeting in the ski resort of Davos, which gets under way Wednesday January 28, is considered a key barometer of the economic weather ahead. And with the banking industry in crisis, western economies in recession, financial markets reeling from some of the worst retreats in recent history and many corporations slashing headcounts by the thousand it is perhaps no surprise that the mission statement of this year's event -- "Shaping the Post-Crisis World" -- offers a downbeat assessment of what lies in store for 2009 and beyond.
This year's five-day meeting will attract 2,500 participants from 96 countries, including a record 41 heads of state or government. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are among those addressing delegates on the opening day.
CNN Video:
Downward economic spiral?
Peter Levene gives CNN's Richard Quest insight to the troubles facing the world economy.