Populist crackdown on financial industry worries business leaders

DAVOS, Switzerland: Global business leaders warned Western governments yesterday that a populist crackdown on the financial industry could crimp a fragile recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s.

The worried response to US President Barack Obama's plans to tax and curb big banks, came on the opening day of the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of some 2,500 business leaders and policymakers in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.