18 must-read stories for the weekend

1. Reasons to be optimistic about the world economy. Stalled growth and stuttering emerging markets are not the whole picture.

2. Tim Berners-Lee on the threat to your personal data. “To a certain extent things are out of control…These apps were deliberately made to steal your data, to build a profile of you.”

3. The black swans of geopolitics. “Today’s world is increasingly bottom-up: the proxies are no longer the puppets of the big powers – now they can run the show.”

4. Men think we’re closing the gender gap at work. Women don’t. Why we need a shared understanding.

5. Is Greece’s debt really unsustainable? The country spends less servicing its loans than either Italy or Ireland.

6. As the austerity debate strikes at the heart of Europe, watch Nobel prize-winning economist Christopher Pissarides debate inequality at Davos.

7. What makes someone become an entrepreneur? “We wanted control of our own destiny, we wanted the freedom to try to change the world.”

8. Governments must prepare people for tech revolution. Professor Schwab “identified the ‘3 Es’ — education, engagement and empowerment — that are important to strengthen a culture of innovation by governments, adding that innovation is the way forward to boost economic competitiveness.” (Bloomberg Businessweek)

9. The consumer data revolt is coming. Draws on the example of the Forum’s Rethinking Personal Data project. (Bloomberg)

10. Investing and divesting for the climate. Cites the World Economic Forum’s Green Investment Report. (Huffington Post)

11. Senegal’s gender challenge. Christine Lagarde quotes from the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report in an address to the country’s National Assembly. (Starr)

12. Can Pharrell, Bono and other Davos regulars really change the world? “The World Economic Forum was instrumental in shifting the discourse about how to reduce rising global temperatures away from corporations and governments to individual consumers and the choices they make.” (Globe and Mail)

13. The risks of premature deindustrialisation. For emerging economies it “has potentially significant economic and political ramifications, including lower economic growth and democratic failure.”

14. The decline of science in corporate R&D. “Unless public funding can make up the deficit, technical progress will slacken and eventually reduce productivity growth.”

15. China’s ‘Silk Road’ can only work if companies are left to make decisions based on what is profitable. “China has only two types of companies that are competitive: infrastructure builders and labor-intensive manufacturers.” Meanwhile, China’s monetary policy has shifted dramatically, to keep the money supply growing as capital inflows drop. By Premier Li Keqiang’s favoured indicators, the country’s economy may be growing at just 3.9 percent.

16. European security after Ukraine. Can “Western retrenchment, European halfheartedness, and a slightly beefed-up U.S. security presence in Europe be the future of European security? Not for long.”

17. How much would a third Greek bailout cost? Nearly €38 billion, says one estimate. And was this the statement nearly agreed by Eurozone finance ministers? Some commentators fear that the political centre across southern Europe is disintegrating. The timelineof hurdles facing Greece, in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

18. Nothing says “Happy Valentine’s Day” like a chart.

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Author: Adrian Monck is Managing Director and head of Public Engagement at the World Economic Forum.

Image: People walk near a puddle reflecting palm trees at the boardwalk in Venice, California November 7, 2014. REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn