In the world there are slogans for power – the ying and yang; who is up, who is down; and the list goes on. The point is if there is a win-lose, somebody needs to be on the winning side and the other side is the loser. If you are involved in sports, you will see it weekly, if you are involved with people sometimes you need to learn. Often times at a workplace it is who is moving up and who is not moving up? The same dynamics happen in politics and in world politics.

In an article by Antoni Slodkowski of Reuters, every year there is a gather of many leaders of companies and countries in Davos, Switzerland. You could say it is the United Nations of the business world, if corporate leaders are talking to each other, then although there are competitive pressures, companies are not going to the extreme.

An important person who has regularly attended Davos is Chinese Premier Li Quing and this year the message was different that in the past. In the past, China was growing and using its clout around the world and offering its currency as an alternative to the US dollar. This year, the reality of the Chinese economy is it is sluggish recovery from the pandemic, a real estate slump and long-term growth prospects are slow, China is opening its door to foreign investment.

Premier Li said the economy was meeting expectations, but the expectations are lower than in the past. The world needs healthy competition to enhance co-operation and innovation, the removal of barriers to competition and co-operate on environmental strategies.

Choosing investment in the Chinese market is not a risk, but an opportunity.

At Davos, 2,800 leaders from 120 countries including 60 heads of state were due to participate at the annual meeting. (Bloomberg TV covered many interviews and they can be seen on YouTube)

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when a company consistently makes a profit and can pay dividends it starts at a higher confidence level and many companies would like to partner with or do joint ventures with the company. The profitable company is the top dog, when a company does not make profits, they stress the need for co-operation and being open to new business.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.