Winter Break for Bankers and Billionaires




Money Talking show

Summary: <p>Heavy hitters from the worlds of business, politics, philanthropy and even entertainment converged on the small Swiss town of Davos-Klosters this week for the World Economic Forum. The annual conference brings together billionaires, bankers and sometimes even rock stars (is that Bono?) to discuss and debate the world's most protracted problems.</p> <p>This year, the <a href="http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2015/about" target="_blank">theme </a>is "The Next Global Context." Not sure what exactly that means? Well, it gives you a lot of opportunities for discussions about practically any topic.</p> <p>And this year, there've been a lot of the conversations about the mixed global economic picture. In the U.S., the economy is growing. But for much of the rest of the world, it's slowing down, even struggling. The European Central Bank <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/europes-qe-quandary">announced plans</a> to inject $1.3 trillion into Europe's economy over fears it's facing deflation. And in 2014, China's economy <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-gdp-growth-is-slowest-in-24-years-1421719453?autologin=y">grew </a>at its slowest pace in over two decades. Then there are the oil states are bleeding money as oil prices plummet. </p> <p>Money Talking regular contributor, Rana Foroohar of Time magazine is in Davos and spent time with many of the event's biggest names. She explains what attendees are talking about, what concerns them and whether global income inequality is getting its due (spoiler alert, no).</p> <p>And later in the show, Greg McKeown, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-The-Disciplined-Pursuit-Less/dp/0804137382">Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less</a> (who's also in Davos this week!) talks to Charlie Herman, host of Money Talking about how to scale down our commitments to make space for the things that really matter. </p>