The ghost of Trump is here at WEF

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The ghost of Trump is here at WEF

DAVOS, Switzerland - The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is well underway, and there is a lot happening on the ground despite not being as crowded as previous years.

One source said the crowds feel 10% to 20% lighter in the halls of the Congress Center. Another said that the after-hours party scene is less muted than in the past.

There isn't much optimism about the economy in the voices of power brokers. One CEO said that we may be talking ourselves into a recession. A number of others have noted that Europe seems to be in a recession, but European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde offered a different take on this, which could blow back onto U.S. shores.

Here are some other themes that Yahoo Finance has seen on the ground here at WEF:

The ghost of Trump: If you look closely, remnants of the Trump administration are all over Davos and we aren't talking about tariffs on China that President Biden may be looking to end.

The after-hours party ticket was provided by former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony The Mooch Scaramucci. Skybridge Capital founder has been spotted working the halls of the busy Congress Center, which he is very good at. There was no word on whether Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, got an invitation to Mooch's gathering. Kushner, who was spotted at the Congress Center on Monday, was here for Davos 2020 as part of the presidential delegation, but has slipped into under-the radar this time.

The next hot party ticket will be released today, as Cloudflare, a cybersecurity firm, is building a name for holding the best parties at Davos, is flying in The Chainsmokers to perform.

Twitter drama: Those who are captivated by the Elon Musk-Twitter saga may forget that Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor has a day job and it isn't monitoring Elon Musk's stream of consciousness on Twitter.

Since November 2021, Taylor has worked with tech titan Marc Benioff as the CO-CEO of Salesforce to compete against rivals SAP CEO Christian Klein is here. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna is here, a source told me, along with Benioff and Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield Salesforce's latest — and largest acquisition Taylor has been meeting with business leaders throughout the week. We suspect that the Twitter battle has come up in his chats, followed by the future of cloud services and the future of work.

It's never hard to spot an investment banker at Davos - usually by their attire. Think slim fit dark-colored Hugo Boss or Zenga suit, fitted dark shirt, slim fit tie and dull black Gucci dress shoes.

The bankers brigade has been in full force this year, mainly the European deals and financing teams from the likes of a Goldman Sachs and others. Christian Sewing, the CEO of Deutsche Bank, was seen in the Congress Center in a dark suit. As was America's CEO Christiana Riley, the bank's America's CEO.

Execs who Yahoo Finance have spoken with say bankers are presenting deals because they believe they are worth more than their current stock prices and that the market has been brutal, as companies look to shore up their balance sheets ahead of a potential recession. One major hedge fund player told me that the selling in the markets may not yet be over. Brian Sozzi is an anchor at Yahoo Finance. You can follow Sozzi on Twitter and LinkedIn.