-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a special address to Davos participants

“Deficits do matter.”

-Dick Cheney, on former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill’s statement that the vice president told him said the Reagan era had shown budget deficits didn’t matter

“And I wouldn’t believe everything I read in Paul O’Neill’s book.”

-Dick Cheney, on the controversial work that included O’Neill’s statement

“It’s now clear that the jobs and growth policies pursued by this administration are working. They are taking effect.”

-Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, in a session on the U.S. economy

“The marketplace of integrity must not be contaminated by the corrupt contagion of greed.”

-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, in a Davos speech on global efforts to stamp out corruption

“There is no attack possible on our nuclear assets. The [protection] of them is total and complete.”

-Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, responding to a question about whether his country’s nuclear weapons were safe from extremists

“I take it as an occupational hazard because I am stepping on so many toes.”

-Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, on his recent narrow escapes from assassination attempts

“I believe all terrorist groups are cults. Al Qaeda is an exemplar example–it is built around a personality and demands self-destruction [from its supporters].”

-Saudi Arabian Ambassador Prince Turki al Faisal, during a panel discussion on terror.

“If you look at the United States and where it is in the world, it’s not an aggressor. It doesn’t seek to consume territory or acquire an empire.”

-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in an address about terrorism and shared values

“There aren’t many people who feel that the world would be a better place if Saddam [Hussein] came back as the dictator of Iraq.”

-Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, advising participants not to confuse their opposition to the U.S.-led war on Iraq with support for its outcome

“Nuclear weapons cannot be seen as a universal evil.”

-Richard Haass, president of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, arguing that the deterrent effect of nuclear weapons had helped to prevent war between India and Pakistan

“It disturbs me to [hear someone] say that there are still some justifications for keeping nuclear weapons.”

-Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, responding to Richard Haass

“I’m convinced that the number of jobs will increase significantly in 2004.”

-Martin Feldstein, CEO of the National Bureau of Economic Research, during a session on the U.S. economy

“Corporate governance was talked about in the early 1990s out of political correctness, but now it is deadly serious.”

-William Donaldson, head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

“Some Americans hope [European Union enlargement] will be a Trojan horse for the U.S. that will lead the [E.U.] to be more positive to the U.S. My answer to that is, that’s not going to happen.”

-Lord Leon Brittan, vice chairman of UBS investment bank and a former trade commissioner for the European Union

“When you speak of [comparing U.S. to European] GDP growth, excuse me but it is irrelevant. We need to speak of GDP per capita. Then the performance of Europe is only slightly lower.”

-French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry Francis Mer

“I did not come back to Davos because I haven’t been able to find any hostility in Washington.”

-U. S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft, in a joking exchange about the cool reception he received when he addressed the World Economic Forum meeting in 2003

“The nature of leadership and moral and strategic clarity shown by President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and some European leaders has changed this world for the better.”

-Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, addressing a Davos panel discussion on terror

“I respect how the antiglobalization people feel and I think a lot of their criticisms are valid. But they want to take us back to a time that never was, on a journey that can never be effective.”

-Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, addressing delegates at Davos

“I am in no doubt that if we had sat on our hands and not acted, the world would today be a much more dangerous place.”

-British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, discussing Iraq

“I don’t accept the analysis that the war in Iraq has hurt the war on terrorism.”

  • British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, discussing Iraq

TIES FORBIDDEN

  • Sign at the entrance to the Davos Congress Center, warning that “offenders” would have to donate five Swiss francs (about $4) to UNICEF if they didn’t conform to the meeting’s attempt to project a less formal image

“We’re entering a synchronized global recovery led by the United States.”

  • Jacob Frenkel, chairman, Merrill Lynch International, at a session on the global economy in 2004

“Today’s engine of the global economy, the unbalanced U.S. economy, is running on fumes.”

  • Stephen Roach, chief economist, Morgan Stanley, at the global economy session

“As an American, I worry for the competitiveness of the U.S. economy. As a businessman, I’ll go where the market is.”

  • Bruce Claflin, president and CEO, 3Com

“Democratic norms are not identical, packaged goods ready for export.”

  • Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, delivering his keynote address at the conference