A UN study claiming that more than 27 million people had lost their jobs worldwide in the past year dominated the first day of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The study overshadowed claims by bankers that plans to increase financial regulations and taxes would hamper the nascent global economic recovery. "Avoiding a jobless recovery is the political priority of today," said Juan Somavia, the head of the International Labour Organisation.
"We need the same policy decisiveness that saved banks now applied to save and create jobs and livelihoods of people." The Barclays Bank president, Bob Diamond, challenged the US president Barack Obama's effort to limit the size of big banks and restrain risk-taking, telling the opening forum session: "I've seen no evidence that suggests that shrinking banks and making all banks smaller or more narrow is the answer."
"If you step back and say large is bad, and we move to narrow banking, the impact of that on banks and on global trade, the global economy, would be very negative," Mr Diamond said.