STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 30 January 2012

[Demeter]

40. DELUGE FROM DAVOS

Davos does data

http://gigaom.com/cloud/davos-does-data/

...The big data phenomenon refers to the explosion of data of all types — location coordinates churned out by cell phones and GPS, machine data from manufacturing gear, consumer data from Twitter and Facebook. Just a fraction of that information resides in traditional databases. It’s not only too much to get one’s head around but also overwhelms traditional database and analytics tools, giving rise to a new generation of computing technologies: the Hadoop data framework, NoSQL databases and big data analytics...

Topless protesters detained at elite Davos forum, trying to call attention to poor

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/topless-protesters-detained-at-elite-davos-forum-trying-to-call-attention-to-poor/2012/01/28/gIQAB6pSXQ_story.html

Three topless Ukrainian protesters were detained Saturday while trying to break into an invitation-only gathering of international CEOs and political leaders to call attention to the needs of the world’s poor. Separately, demonstrators from the Occupy movement marched to the edge of the gathering and engaged in a brief standoff with police...With temperatures around freezing in the snow-filled town, they took off their tops and tried to climb a fence before being detained. “Crisis! Made in Davos,” read one message painted across a protester’s torso, while others held banners that said “Poor, because of you” and “Gangsters party in Davos.”

Davos police spokesman Thomas Hobi said the three women were taken to a police station and told that they weren’t allowed to demonstrate without a permit — or naked. They were released later Saturday.

The activists are from the Ukrainian group Femen, which has staged small, half-naked protests to highlight a range of issues including oppression of political opposition....

OCCUPY UPSTAGED!

Uninvited guest, Mr 99 Percent, crashes Davos

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/26/uk-breakingviews-davos-inequality-idUSLNE80P03120120126

The most difficult guest to avoid bumping into at the World Economic Forum this year has no badge. He was not invited to the annual gathering in Davos, but he haunts the panels, hallway conversations and politicians' speeches. He is Mr. 99 Percent, the spectre of the unemployed and disenfranchised.

Not everyone at the Swiss conference is a member of the privileged 1 percent, but the whole point of the endeavour is to bring together the powerful of the world (and Mick Jagger). And the Indian billionaires, Chinese entrepreneurs, Wall Street chieftains and leaders of organized labour agree on one thing. An increase in civil unrest would be bad for business. The only beneficiaries of last year's confrontations in the streets of downtown Manhattan, north London or Santiago were the makers of tear gas and barricades.

But the power-brokers and plutocrats cannot agree on what should be done. The Forum's agenda is a bit schizophrenic. A Wednesday panel, "The Seeds of Dystopia," focused on how to keep the 225 million unemployed around the world from losing faith in capitalism and civic institutions. One idea was to pay more attention to limiting the ratio of executive compensation to average worker pay.

But at the same time, and just down the hall, a hedge fund manager, a consultant and a corporate chairman discussed "The Compensation Question." Their answer, in a nutshell, was that it's a matter for shareholders -- leave us alone....

Davos 2012: The unfinished and the unmentionable

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16782067

Anyone who listened to the main sessions in Davos could tell you the top two items now on the to-do list for European leaders: fixing the eurozone's financial firewall and finally sealing the deal on Greece.

But there's a second list I'd like to compile after a few days talking to senior leaders and business people here in the mountains. That's the list of fears, lurking on the sidelines, which could come back and bite us, but no-one wants publicly to confront.

Call it the Davos Unmentionables...This year, the two unmentionables were Portugal and the price of oil. (IRAN, EMBARGO AND THREAT OF WAR)

This Year, Davos Doesn't Deliver

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204573704577186962466956958.html

THANK GOD!

Davos Diary

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Davos-Diary/905322/

Not confidence-inspiring

The most gripping exchange during a session on Russia came when Bill Browder of Hermitage Capital — once the biggest foreign investors in Russia and now a critic — asked the panel about the notorious death in police custody of Sergei Magnitsky, his lawyer and auditor. The response of Igor Shuvalov, the deputy prime minister, was (presumably) meant to sound reasonable and reassuring. He described the case as “horrendous” and said that some people had already lost their jobs and been charged over it. But it was very difficult to get to the bottom of the case, because the “system” was protecting some guilty people. The assembled business people did not seem impressed.

Mexican waves

President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, who is finishing his single six-year term this year, warned that the eurozone faced “a timebomb” which must be deactivated fast. He is particularly worried about the lack of growth amid austerity, particularly in southern Europe. That sounds very much like the warning David Cameron gave to the Davos VIPs, but it sounds all the more credible from a neutral Mexican leader.

Next year’s new year

The absence of Chinese senior officials — who stayed away from Davos this year owing to the forum’s clash with Chinese lunar new year festivities — has been something of an embarrassment for organisers. Especially this year, when there will be the once-a-decade leadership shuffle in China, it made sense for senior Chinese officials to celebrate the new year at home, where they can be seen with the people during the festivities. Now it appears that the World Economic Forum is open to moving the annual Davos gathering to an earlier date, possibly in mid-January, to ease the way for Chinese leaders to attend....