The attendee list of Bilderberg is still pretty much the only thing that is not a closely guarded secret, as 120 of the world's richest and most powerful people meet behind closed doors, this time at the Suvretta House hotel in Switzerland, a venue which not only boasts a "fairytale castle" design, but also its own "Teddy World."

UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne are known to have attended in the past, although it seems unlikely that either will attend this week. A spokesperson at the UK Treasury press office said it "didn't know" whether or not Osborne would go this year, but promised to call CNBC.com back. They did not. Given the secretive spirit of Bilderberg, that could well be taken as a confirmation.

Andrew Kakabadse is professor of international management development at Cranfield University. For his recent book "Bilderberg People," co-authored with Nada Kakabadse and Ian Richardson, Kakabadse interviewed a number of past attendees in order to understand how the network of global influence works. "It's a meeting. It's not an organization. It's not an official summit," he told CNBC.com. "It's basically a meeting of friends." The Bilderbergs are probably the most influential global network of all time. It's an honor to be invited, it's a tremendous honor. Part of it is recognition for work done and part of it is for contribution to enabling world affairs.

"The people we talked to are quite genuine. Mostly they don't understand the conspiracy bit, because they say when you go there what you find is people of all sorts of varying views. But the fact that they've been invited is indicative of the position that they've reached in life," he said. Nevertheless, Bilderberg is where ideas are shared and a transatlantic, capitalist consensus view of the world comes together.

"You do get the impression that what is happening is a shaping of ideas and the shaping of a way forward does take place," Kakabadse said.

"The name we'd put to this is smart power or shaping, but it is definitely not doing something definite, like 'we're going to go and make that investment or conspire against them.' It's more about getting a consensus around a position that then infiltrates itself into society."

The situation with Britain's current account deficit is lamentably rather more serious than a mere six shilling overspend. Last year we imported approximately 50 billion pounds more than we exported, or in Mr Micawber's terms, we spent 50 billion pounds more than we earned. Large though this number is, it wouldn't be much of a concern if it was just a one off, but in fact Britain has been persistently living beyond its means for nearly thirty years now. To find the last recorded trade surplus in goods and services, you have to go as far back as 1982.

The Bank of England's intention in keeping the bank rate at just 0.5 per cent is to support demand, but by the by, it is also engineering a massive transfer of wealth from savers to borrowers, or to use more moralistic terminology, from the thrifty to the profligate. At the centre of the policy response to the crisis is a giant flaw - that in seeking to address the crisis in demand, policymakers are only sowing the seeds for the next one.

"The idea that the US could threaten to default is a dangerous one," he said in an interview. "The reverberations in those global markets would be very severe. That's where the real risk comes in," Bullard warned. Some Republican lawmakers have said a brief default, which would be inevitable in August if lawmakers fail to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, might be acceptable if it forces the White House to deal with large budget deficits.

Bullard's warning came just after Fitch said it would slash to "junk" the ratings on all Treasury securities, seen worldwide as a risk-free investment, if the government misses debt payments by August 15. The ratings would go back up once the government fulfills its debt obligations, but probably not to the current AAA level, Fitch said, in a stark statement about the impact of even a short-lived default on the credit-worthiness.

"The notion of flirting with a default on existing obligations flirts with irresponsibility," Richard Bernstein, chief executive of Richard Bernstein Capital Management LLC, said at the Reuters 2011 Investment Outlook Summit in New York. The White House said Fitch's warning makes it clear that "there is no alternative to raising the debt ceiling."

But any form of default could destabilize the global economy and sour already tense relations with big US creditors such as China, government officials and investors warn. Li Daokui, an adviser to the People's Bank of China, said a default could undermine the US dollar, and Beijing needed to dissuade Washington from pursuing this course of action.

"I think there is a risk that the US debt default may happen," Li told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Beijing. "The result will be very serious and I really hope that they would stop playing with fire." China is the largest foreign creditor to the United States, holding more than $1 trillion in Treasury debt as of March, US data shows, so its concerns carry considerable weight in Washington. "I really worry about the risks of a US debt default, which I think may lead to a decline in the dollar's value," Li said.

Congress has balked at increasing a statutory limit on government spending as lawmakers argue over how to curb a deficit which is projected to reach $1.4 trillion this fiscal year. The US Treasury Department has said it will run out of borrowing room by August 2. If the United States cannot make interest payments on its debt, the Obama administration has warned of "catastrophic" consequences that could push the still-fragile economy back into recession.

"It has dire implications for the economy at a time when the macro data is softening," said Ben Westmore, a commodities economist at National Australia Bank. "It's just a horrible idea," he said.

"The US fiscal situation, if not handled correctly, could turn into a global macro shock," Bullard said in an interview on Wednesday. "The idea that the US could threaten to default is a dangerous one." Some Republican lawmakers have said a brief US default might be acceptable if it forces the White House to deal with large budget deficits, but few Wall Street analysts believe it will come to that.

However, Bullard is worried about reaction overseas if the US government would technically default - basically delaying interest payments for a couple of days. That could happen in the absence of a political compromise on this year's budget. "If it were just US markets, it might not cause too many problems, but we've got people participating in foreign markets who are probably not as tuned in to the US political situation," Bullard said. "The reverberations in those global markets would be very severe. That's where the real risk comes in."

This strange, hypothetical, article, which first appeared on April 24, hammers home again and again the message that an Iranian nuclear test will not lead to disaster. On the contrary, life will go as before except that Iranians will feel better about themselves.

This has the look of a kite being flown, but for whom? It could be intended to get Iranians used to the idea of a nuclear test, and less fearful of international reaction. It could be a gesture of defiance to the world by hardline elements - according to independent experts, Gerdab is run by the Revolutionary Guards' cyber defence command, which is presumably still smarting from the Stuxnet attack. Opposition websites describe it as an enforcement tool for the regime, identifying and threatening independent bloggers inside Iran.

The article comes during a period when Tehran's official stance is particularly defiant and assertive, announcing today that it will triple its production of 20% enriched uranium and shift it to the underground Fordow site, near Qom.

Washington signed on to a "draft declaration on the question of the Malvinas Islands" passed by unanimous consent by the General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS) at its meeting in San Salvador yesterday, an issue which had been heavily pushed by Argentina. In doing so, the United States sided not only with Buenos Aires, but also with a number of anti-American regimes including Hugo Chavez's Venezuela and Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua.

The declaration calls for Argentina and Great Britain to enter into negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falklands, a position which London has long viewed as completely unacceptable. It also comes in the wake of increasing aggression by the Kirchner regime in the past 18 months, including threats to blockade British shipping in the South Atlantic.

The sovereignty of the Islands is not a matter for negotiation, and Britain will never give in to threats from Argentina or its tyrannical allies in places such as Venezuela. The White House recently declared that Britain remains America's most important ally. Now it should live up to its words by supporting Washington's closest friend and partner on matters of vital British interest, including the future of British subjects living in the South Atlantic, whose only wish is to remain free under the protection of the Union Jack.

Consumption in the world's richest countries grew by 3.5 percent, the most since 1984, bringing it back to the level of a decade ago, BP said. Consumption in developing countries - particularly resource-hungry ones in Asia and South America - logged a 7.5 percent increase. "By year-end, economic activity for the world as a whole exceeded pre-crisis levels driven by the so-called developing world," said Christof Ruehl, chief economist for BP.

Last year's surge was led by China, which increased its energy consumption by 11.2 percent, according to BP. That moved China ahead of the United States as the world's biggest consumer of energy, accounting for 20.3 percent of global demand compared with 19 percent for the US, the report said.

China was by far the world's largest consumer of coal, taking 48 percent. The United States had the biggest thirst for oil with 21 percent of global demand, double China's consumption.

The transgenic herd of 300 was bred by inserting human genes into cloned cow embryos which were then implanted into surrogate cows. The technology used was similar to that used to produce Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned by scientists, in Scotland. The milk is still undergoing safety tests, but with government permission it will be sold to consumers as a more nutritious dairy drink than cow's milk.

Workers at the university's dairy farm have already tasted the milk - and said it is sweeter and stronger than the bovine variety, according to Sky News . "It's good," said worker Jiang Yao. "It's better for you because it's genetically modified." The scientists have also produced animals that are resistant to mad cow disease, as well as beef cattle that are genetically modified to produce more nutritious meat.

The director of the research project, Professor Li Ning, said Western concerns about the ethics of genetic modification are misplaced. "There are 1.5 billion people in the world who don't get enough to eat," he said. "It's our duty to develop science and technology, not to hold it back. We need to feed people first, before we consider ideals and convictions."

The acceleration of the American campaign in recent weeks comes amid a violent conflict in Yemen that has left the government in Sana, a United States ally, struggling to cling to power. Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to the capital, and American officials see the strikes as one of the few options to keep the militants from consolidating power.

On Friday, American jets killed Abu Ali al-Harithi, a midlevel Qaeda operative, and several other militant suspects in a strike in southern Yemen. According to witnesses, four civilians were also killed in the airstrike. Weeks earlier, drone aircraft fired missiles aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who the United States government has tried to kill for more than a year. Mr Awlaki survived.

The recent operations come after a nearly year-long pause in American airstrikes, which were halted amid concerns that poor intelligence had led to bungled missions and civilian deaths that were undercutting the goals of the secret campaign.

This is the first visit by China's defence chief to the US for some seven years. Indeed military-to-military ties have lagged behind improvements in the wider bilateral relationship, which was symbolised by the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington in January of this year. General Chen's trip began in unusual style with Chinese and US Army bands playing a joint concert at the Kennedy Arts Centre in Washington DC. Harmony in military-to-military relations is very much the intended tone for this visit. But how far can this transcend a developing strategic rivalry?

During his military tour around America, General Chen will see for himself the extraordinary technical abilities of the US armed forces. China, of course, is racking up some impressive technical achievements of its own. It has developed a land-based long-range ballistic missile capable of striking US carrier battle groups far out to sea.

This "carrier-killer", as it has been dubbed in US naval circles - the DF-21D Anti-Ship ballistic missile - is believed to have achieved an initial operational capability. China's own first aircraft carrier - a reconditioned former Soviet vessel - is close to beginning sea trials. And over recent months there have been tantalising glimpses of China's new, stealthy, fifth-generation fighter aircraft - dubbed in the West the J-20.

As an editorial this week in the state-run China Daily newspaper put it: "Sino-US military ties still face three major obstacles: US arms sales to Taiwan; frequent reconnaissance by US naval ships and aircraft in the waters and airspace of China's exclusive economic zones, and the restrictions imposed by some US domestic laws on exchanges and technical co-operation between the two armed forces."

None of that is going to change in the near-future.

It is there for all to see, somewhat incongruously, right behind Dalian's Ikea superstore. The huge carrier has been years in the making, and it is an unmistakeable sign of China's expanding military and its desire to project Chinese power further beyond its borders than ever before. "An aircraft carrier is a symbol of the power of your navy," says General Xu Guangyu, who used to serve in the PLA's headquarters and is now retired. "China should at least be on the same level as other permanent members of the UN Security Council who have carriers."

Gen Xu now advises China's government on its military modernisation programme. Seven nations currently operate carriers - it used to be eight, but the UK has just withdrawn its last one from service and will have to wait several years for a new one to be built.

"It's also a symbol of deterrence," adds Gen Xu, "It's like saying, 'Don't mess with me. Don't think you can bully me.' So it's normal for us to want a carrier. I actually think it's strange if China doesn't have one."

Flames were spotted on a ridge on the southeastern side of nearby Springerville and columns of orange smoke rose from the hills. Ash rained from the sky, which was filled with thick smoke, and when the sun peeked through, it was blood-red. The blaze has burned 486 square miles (1,259 square kilometers) of ponderosa pine forest, driven by wind gusts of more than 60 mph (96 kph) since it was sparked May 29 by what authorities believe was an unattended campfire. On Tuesday, it became the second-largest fire in Arizona history.

Thousands of firefighters, including many from several western states and as far away as New York, hope to keep the flames from getting into Springerville and Eagar, which sit in grassland at the edge of the forest.

This gap between spending commitments and revenue last year equals more than one-third of the nation's gross domestic product. Medicare alone took on $1.8 trillion in new liabilities, more than the record deficit prompting heated debate between Congress and the White House over lifting the debt ceiling.

The $61.6 trillion in unfunded obligations amounts to $527,000 per household. That's more than five times what Americans have borrowed for everything else - mortgages, car loans and other debt. It reflects the challenge as the number of retirees soars over the next 20 years and seniors try to collect on those spending promises.

"The (federal) debt only tells us what the government owes to the public. It doesn't take into account what's owed to seniors, veterans and retired employees," says accountant Sheila Weinberg, founder of the Institute for Truth in Accounting, a Chicago-based group that advocates better financial reporting. "Without accurate accounting, we can't make good decisions."

The government has promised pension and health benefits worth more than $700,000 per retired civil servant. The pension fund's key asset: federal IOUs.

The floods led to the evacuation of about 45,000 county residents, while another 3,000 remained stranded, relief officials said. Essential services including electricity have been disrupted in several towns and cities. More precipitation was forecast for the flooded-hit areas. The long-due rains, however, have brought huge relief from the months-long drought that has savaged several provinces in central China, described as the worst in the past six decades.