Davos Notebook

Coming into Davos, with the world seemingly on edge, the biggest cry was for coordination from the “authorities,” but to judge from the noises coming from the Europeans yesterday, that isn’t likely if what you are hoping for is rate cuts soon.

ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet was in no mood to budge on the fight against inflation. The absolute best illustration of the huge split over what central banks should do was Trichet’s reception in the hall after his panel.

OECD chief Angel Gurria and former Italian finance minister Domenico Siniscalco greeted Trichet with hugs of encouragement for not bowing to calls for interest rate cuts.

But then up marched an angry business representative from his native France who asked the central bank chief if he wanted to see European industry leave the continent. “I take note,” Trichet said, making no commitment.

Who knows though, if the thinking of some who believe the Fed was hoodwinked into cutting due to misinformation, the ECB’s course may be fully vindicated.

Ariel Yarnitsky, CEO of SpeedBit, meets with Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, is the president of the Union for Reform Judaism in the U.S. Yarnitsky filed this post and is contributing to the Reuters/Nokia mobile journalism project in Davos.

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Ariel Yarnitsky, CEO of SpeedBit, finds Pablos (AKA Paul Holman) enjoying Davos and suspecting it may be harder to sneak in next year. Yarnitsky filed this post and is contributing to the Reuters/Nokia mobile journalism project in Davos.

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The theme of this year’s World Economic Forum is “collaborative innovation,” but there’s still nothing like a bit of bare-knuckled verbal sparring from Davos veterans Martin Sorrell and Maurice Levy.

There has never been much love lost between Sorrell (left), chief executive of UK advertising company WPP, and Levy (right), the CEO of its French counterpart Publicis. The not-so-friendly rivalry flared up on Thursday over Publicis’ recently unveiled partnership with Google.

According to the joint Publicis/Google announcement, the two firms have been working together for a year to combine Google’s technological know-how with Publicis’s analytical and media planning expertise. One executive familiar with the deal said each firm will “embed” staff within each other’s offices.

Age hasn’t mellowed him. At 76 years old, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch is the elder statesman of the corporate world at this year’s Davos. But his views remain as strident as ever. Speaking at a session entitled “Rebuilding Brand America” he promptly lambasted two holy cows – the United Nations and the Kyoto Protocol.

“Everyone knows it is a corrupt, ridiculous, dysfunctional place,” he said on the UN. “We know that the Kyoto treaty doesn’t work and is impractical. Some want America to set an example and sign it and obey it. Now, what do you want to do – put everybody out of work in America while China and Russia and India don’t sign it?”

Eric Hippeau, managing parter for venture capital investor Softbank Capital , is ‘long-term optimistic’ on outlook for investments in a downturn — filed by John Rossant.

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LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman on what he sees coming in Internet investments. This footage was captured by Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, who is contributing to the Reuters/Nokia mobile journalism project in Davos.

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[Click here to read more about Jes Staley's appointment as head of JPMorgan Chase investment banking, putting him in line to succeed CEO Jamie Dimon]

JP Morgan head of global asset management talks about operating alongside investment banking during a period of turbulent markets.

Michael Chertoff spells out how to protect the Internet from being used by potential terrorists.

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Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales reveals his favourite Wiki entries: Heavy metal umlaut and Inherently funny word

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