Obama's Rally for "Middle Class Economics" & More Headlines for Wednesday

1) US President Barack Obama delivered a State of the Union address focused on "middle class economics" and closing the income gap. Freed from the worst of the economic crisis and foreign wars, Obama unveiled an ambitious agenda – or is that a quixotic one? – for his last two years in office. He called on Congress to support legislation to make the first two years of community college free for most, increase tax credits for child care, raise wages and close tax loopholes for the wealthy and multinational corporations. Obama also asked for more authority to negotiate free-trade agreements, one agenda where he's more likely to have the business community on his side. The main points and stats behind the speech are below.

2) The World Economic Forum opens today in Davos. The conference for the business elite, which was a few years ago a lightning rod for anti-globalization activists, is this year co-chaired by Oxfam executive director Winnie Byanyima, who released a much covered report on wealth inequality this week. Read here more posts from LinkedIn members and Influencers straight from Davos, Switzerland.

3) CEOs' faith in the global economy is declining, but they are bullish on the United States. According to PWC's Annual Global CEO Survey, non-American CEOs place the US at the top of their list of growth markets, ahead of China for the first time since the question was first asked in 2010. US CEOs are also largely confident about their company's future and 59% plan to increase headcount in 2015. But only 37% of CEOs are optimistic about global economic growth, down from 44% last year.

4) Facebook says it has contributed $227 billion and 4.5 million jobs to the world economy in 2014. It's popular to show up at Davos with an economic impact report. The idea is that the social network's tools for marketing and app development and its effect on Web and mobile usage have a great multiplier effect on the economy. No doubt but it's hard to quantify, and not everyone's convinced by Facebook's math.

5) The US House and Senate will debate net neutrality today. More specifically, they'll discuss a bill that grants the FCC the authority to regulate how ISPs manage network traffic and prohibits "paid prioritization" deals (i.e. paid-for fast lanes for some Internet content). The FCC is scheduled to vote on new rules next week but its authority has been contested in courts before. While the bill seems immediately beneficial to net neutrality, it also limits the FCC's authority in other ways and many open Internet advocates oppose it.

6) Microsoft is previewing its new OS, Windows 10, today. The company so badly wanted to move on from Windows 8 that it skipped over 9 altogether. Windows 8 was a bold mobile-inspired move for a desktop OS – bold and maybe too early. It's still on only 15% of desktops (that'd be good for anyone but Microsoft), less than even 14-year-old Windows XP.

7) Netflix smashed expectations in the fourth quarter and its stock soared in after-hours trading (+16% as of this writing). The site now has 39.11 million subscribers in the US and 18.28 million in the rest of the world. CEO Reed Hastings also announced the site will start streaming Sony's North Korea comedy "The Interview" this Saturday. Netflix will also make an even bigger push in original content, saying it's some of its most successful. Ok, we'll just forget about Marco Polo...

Every morning, we share the top headlines professionals need to know about right now. Share with your network, read and discuss — and let us know what we missed in the comments below.