In 1973 World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab launched the first Davos Manifesto, a set of ethical principles. 50 years after its founding, the Forum has launched a new manifesto. The global economy has undergone a huge transformation in this time, with the rise of big tech, China, wage inequality and ethi cal companies.

Thriller Premium is at it again covering Davos again this year, covering global insights into the impact Crypto & Bitcoin has on wider issues such as responding to Covid-19, restoring economic growth and advancing this new social contract.

Highlights

Resetting Digital Currencies (Option 1)

COVID-19 has accelerated the long-term shift from cash, with an 8% increase in non-cash payments in the euro area in 2020. Meanwhile, central bank digital currencies are emerging, potentially transforming how people use money worldwide.What policies, practices and partnerships are needed to leverage the opportunities posed by the rise of digital currencies?This session is associated with the following projects and initiatives of the World Economic Forum: Digital Currency Governance Consortium, and Reimagining Regulation: Pathways to Digital Currency.

Andrew Bailey

Currently Executive Director Banking and Chief Cashier at the Bank of England. Appointed to current role in January 2004 and has several key responsibilities to fulfil. Member of the Governor's Executive Team, which is the bank's senior management group. Formerly, Research Officer at the London School of Economics, before joining the Bank of England in 1985. BA and PhD, Queens' College, Cambridge.

Glenn H. Hutchins

Chairman, North Island and North Island Ventures; Co-Founder, Silver Lake. Director, AT&T, Virtu Financial and Digital Currency Group; Co-Chair, Brookings Institution and CARE; Member, Executive Committee, Boston Celtics Basketball Team and the Obama Foundation; Member of the Board, New York Presbyterian Hospital and the Center for American Progress. Member, Investment Board, Singapore’s Government Investment Corporation. Formerly: Director and Chair, Audit and Risk Committee, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; served President Clinton during the transition and in the White House as a Special Adviser on Economic and Healthcare Policy. Former: Chairman of the Board, SunGard Data Systems and Instinet; Director, Nasdaq; Director, Harvard Management Company; Co-Chairman, Harvard University’s capital campaign. Co-founded, with wife, the Hutchins Family Foundation which supports the construction of the Obama Presidential Center and has created the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University; the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution; and the Chronic Fatigue Initiative. Published essays on economic and public policy in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Fortune and Foreign Affairs. Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. BA, Harvard College; MBA, Harvard Business School; JD, Harvard Law School.

Strengthening the Financial and Monetary System (Option 1)

Governments responded swiftly to the COVID-19 pandemic by providing fiscal and monetary support as well as adapting regulatory requirements to this new context. This Leadership Panel assesses the current health of the financial system, identifies potential emerging financial risks resulting from these historic interventions, and reflects on how industries and governments can work together to make key financial institutions more resilient in 2021.

Yi Gang

Governor, The People's Bank of China

PhD in Economics. 1978-80, studies, Department of Economics, Peking University. 1980-86, studied Business Administration, Hamline University; then pursued Doctorate in Economics, University of Illinois. 1986-94, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, then Professor, Department of Economics, Indiana University. 1994, co-founded the China Center for Economic Rsearch (CCER) at Peking University, served as Deputy Director, Full Professor and PhD Adviser, economics. With the People’s Bank of China: 1997-2002, Deputy Secretary-General, Monetary Policy Committee; 2002-03, Secretary-General, Monetary Policy Committee, and Deputy Director-General, Monetary Policy Department; October 2003, Director-General, Monetary Policy Department; July 2004, Member, CPC Committee; Assistant Governor; 2006-07, President, Operation Office, Secretary, CPC Operation Office Committee, and Director, Beijing Foreign Exchange Administration Office, State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE); December 2007, Deputy Governor and Member, CPC Committee; 2009-15, Administrator, SAFE, and Secretary, CPC SAFE Leadership Group; March 2016, Deputy Secretary, CPC Committee, and Deputy Governor; since March 2018, Governor. Deputy Director, Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs. Alternate Member, 19th CPC Central Committee. Representative, 18th and 19th CPC National Congress. Member, 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee.

Mary Callahan Erdoes

Chief Executive Officer, Asset and Wealth Management, JP Morgan

Mary Callahan Erdoes is Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase's Asset & Wealth Management line of business – one of the largest and most respected investment managers and private banks in the world, with more than $3 trillion in client assets and a 200-year-old legacy as a trusted fiduciary to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. Since joining the firm 20 years ago, Erdoes has held senior roles across Asset & Wealth Management before becoming its CEO in 2009 and joining the JPMorgan Chase Operating Committee, the firm’s most senior management team. Erdoes serves on the boards of the U.S.-China Business Council and the Robin Hood Foundation of New York City. She is also a board member of Georgetown University, where she earned her Mathematics undergraduate degree, and serves on the Global Advisory Council of Harvard University, where she received her MBA. Erdoes lives in New York City with her husband and three daughters.

Jes Staley

Group Chief Executive Officer, Barclays

Joined Barclays as Group Chief Executive on 1 December 2015. Has nearly four decades of extensive experience in banking and financial services. Worked for more than 30 years at J.P. Morgan, initially training as a commercial banker, and later advancing to the leadership of major businesses involving equities, private banking and asset management, and ultimately heading the company’s Global Investment Bank. Most recently, served as Managing Partner at BlueMountain Capital. BA in Economics from Bowdoin College.

Bitcoin use of Criminal Activity is subsiding. Bitcoin still seen as a bubble.

The Federal Reserve, the United States’ central bank, said today at the conclusion of its regular Federal Open Market Committee meeting that it would keep its key overnight interest rate near zero and make no change to its monthly bond purchases of at least $120 billion. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that there was “great uncertainty ahead.”

CBDC’s is all the Rage, much different from last year. Stable Coins will be the first step globally, governments are looking into or trialing their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which are essentially digital versions of a government’s fiat currency.

China is onboard with going Green by 2030 and will use it’s monetary might to do so. Also looking to become a consumption driven economy very soon.

References: FinExtra Davos 2021