World Economic Forum in Davos closes with predictions, warnings

GlobalPost

The World Economic Forum, a three-day summit held in the Swiss resort town of Davos, was winding down on Saturday with its share of predictions and warnings from the various business and political leaders in attendance. 

The mood was dark for International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde, one of the key speakers Saturday, who urged countries to actively continue to maintain their growth and not slip backwards intro recession. 

"It is not going to be a stable landscape and a walk in the park for 2013," Lagarde said, according to Deutsche Welle, after predicting a 0.2 percent contraction for Europe's economy in 2013. 

She also urged US officials to "indicate very quickly" how they planned to solve the upcoming congressional battles on economic issues like the debt ceiling, according to the Associated Press

The doom-and-gloom outlook continued from investor and philanthropist George Soros, who tends to be accurate in his Davos predictions (a few years back, he called Angela Merkel standing behind the euro, USA Today reported.) 

Soros forecast a year of "evil," especially in the US, which he things will see "riots on the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties. The global economic system could even collapse altogether," according to USA Today. 

Several attendees also voiced concern about Japan's new economic policies, including an inflation target of two percent and a widespread asset purchasing plan to pump money into the country's lagging economy, Al Jazeera English reported

TIME Magazine's "curious capitalist" Rana Foroohar has culled her own lessons from Davos, including increasing control from central banks, currency wars, and continued uncertainty on how to fix unemployment. 

Even the much-talked-about Google party was canceled this year...perhaps a sign of things to come? 

More from GlobalPost: 2013 World Economic Forum begins in Davos, Switzerland (LIVE FEED)

[View the story "World Economic Forum comes to a close in Davos" on Storify]

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.