The agony of mammon : the imperial world economy explains itself to the membership in Davos, Switerzland / Lewis H. Lapham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lapham, Lewis H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic policy.

Economic history--1990-.

Economic history.

Physical Description:

84 pages ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Verso, 1998.

Summary:

Early in 1998 some 2,000 of the world's most prominent business and political leaders -- among them Bill Gates and the President of Brazil, also George Soros and the Chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank -- made their way to Davos, Switzerland for the 27th annual meeting of The World Economic forum. They brought with them a wealth of good intentions as well as what the correspondent for London's Financial Times estimated at 'roughly 70% of the world's daily output of self-congratulation.'This year's forum included the incongruous presence of Lewis Lapham, a writer known for his not always flattering portraits America's possessing classes. The international plutocracy assembled in the shadow of an alp made famous by Thomas Hann's The Magic Mountain presented Lapham with a broader canvas on which to exercise his considerable talent for keen observation and sardonic wit. He encounters finance ministers and professors of economics who gaze into the glass of the future and see little except their own reflections. After five days in Davos he understands that the masters of markets know as little about the likely movements of the global economy as the waiters supplying them with plum brandy and cheese fondue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical refernces.

ISBN:

1859847102

OCLC:

40567398