In a nod to the new mood of sobriety, Goldman Sachs has quietly cancelled its glittering annual party at the World Economic Forum in Davos and has sharply reduced its delegation to the event, which starts Wednesday. Other conspicuous cancellations include John Thain, who was due to host a high-profile breakfast meeting on Friday– until he was ousted from his post at Merrill Lynch on Thursday. Lehman Brothers, which used to send a formidable delegation to the ski resort, has also disappeared. Vikram Pandit, the embattled CEO of Citigroup, has withdrawn this year. So has Howard Stringer, the CEO of Sony. But Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan, is hosting a party in Davos’s iconic “Piano Bar, while Barclays is throwing a dinner in a mountain-top restaurant. And curiously, overall attendance numbers are actually up this year.
