STOCK MARKET WATCH - Wednesday, 11 January 2012

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61. Growing wealth divide puts globalisation at risk

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/11/uk-davos-risks-idUKTRE80A0LT20120111

(Reuters) - A backlash against rising inequality - evident from the Occupy movement to the Arab Spring - risks derailing the advance of globalisation and represents a threat to economies worldwide, according to the World Economic Forum.

Severe income disparity and precarious government finances rank as the biggest economic threats facing the world, according to the group's 2012 Global Risks report released on Wednesday.

The 60-page analysis of 50 risks over the next decade precedes the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting in two weeks' time in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, and paints a bleak picture of an increasingly uncertain world.

Over the past four decades, Davos, which brings together politicians, central bankers and business leaders, has become a byword for globalisation. Now confidence about the steady gains from the onward march of the global marketplace is faltering.




*** the coming avalanche of official expressions of 'concern' and 'surprise'.

cause neither did they intend this awful outcome -- and 'no one could have predicted' it.