The post-COVID global reality is that 2/3rds of all new wealth was pocketed by the richest 1%. But, more importantly, will Snoop Dogg be in town for the Salesforce party? Want to tram up to the the Hotel Schatzalp for a private lunch with Senators Manchin and Sinema?
Because Davos Man has arrived! Alert the yodelers. And, as it happens, so have the world’s oldest professionals to greet them. “Demand for sex work skyrockets each year at the meeting of world leaders and business tycoons who jet in from all around the world to rub shoulders with each other,” writes Jack Newman in The Daily Mail. This is the least surprising piece of news since the gossip surfaced of Senator Sinema partying with Princess Beatrice at the WSJ party with two glasses of wine in her hands. Charmed, I’m sure.
Vanitas Vanitatum et Omnia Vanitas!
Tony Blair, one of the most ambitious and least ethical primates in the world, made the classic Kinsley gaffe (above). A Kinsley gaffe, by definition, “occurs when a political gaffe reveals some truth that a politician did not intend to admit.” In saying “my three African Presidents” to Christiane Amanpour, former Prime Minister Blair — the so-called man who whispers in the ears of African Presidents — unintentionally let us into his creepy head space. But what about the rest of the conference?
I predict that at Davos there will be a lot of empty cavils in public meant for domestic consumption. While in private, there will be a lot of conspicuous consumption. Minus the trappings of glamour, how is this much different from Primatology? I’ll bet there will be a lot of “bipedal swagger” on display at the Hotel Schatzalp.
There will also be a lot of talk about China, which may be at the beginning of a demographic crisis. But what is to be done, other than chatter? And clearly there will be a Chinese delegation to promote “face" Ukraine will be heavily represented, obviously, as their hustle at this event could improve their position in the ongoing war. Senator Sinema, on cue, will wear a Dalmatian coat. It is all, ultimately, just hustling for status. It is precisely the sort of place where one would have the misfortune of interacting with Andrew Ross Sorkin.
If you can’t tell, I am not a superfan of Davos culture or of Davos Man. Allow me to introduce a note of skepticism to the conversation as media elites flock to Switzerland in their very best winter gear to give live, solemn, breathless updates on the doings of the Overclass from their chalets. Even if Emirati hot chocolate is available on the promenade. Also: Don't miss the Wall Street Journal nightcap at the Belvedere! (Averted Gaze)
“Davos Man” — and sometimes “Davos Woman,” is a semi-fictitious composite of global thought leaders is oft cited, rarely held to task for his or her poor record of prognostication. “A short list of things the Davos crowd missed: the 2008 crash, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in 2016, slowing global growth in 2018 and 2019, and the pandemic in 2020,” writes Liz Hoffman in SEMAFOR. “I did a deeper dive on just how bad the masters of the universe are at seeing around corners here,” she adds.
Simon Cooper, of the FT, wrote an interesting column in 2021, mocking the notion of infallible Davos Man/Woman as well as the conventional wisdom that a Swiss ski resort in January was a place for the best predictive thinking for the year ahead:
With everyone at Davos saying a Trump presidency couldn’t happen, economist Ken Rogoff suddenly realised it could. He told Bloomberg: “No matter how improbable, the event most likely to happen is the opposite of whatever the Davos consensus is.”
Leaping nimbly from blindness to power worship, Davos then welcomed Trump whenever he dropped in to spout falsehoods. On January 21 2020, last year’s opening day, the WEF’s founder Klaus Schwab thanked the already impeached president for “injecting optimism” into the global discourse. “We need dreams,” exulted Schwab. By January 22, CNN was running “live coronavirus updates” on Chinese lockdowns, mandatory face masks and the virus’s arrival in the US — none of it mentioned by Trump or indeed almost any speakers at Davos. The panel titled “The Next Super Bug”, a tour d’horizon of biological threats, did very briefly address the actual next super bug. One panellist, Richard Hatchett of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said the coronavirus could “potentially cause tens, hundreds of thousands of deaths, or even millions”. That thought was left unexamined.
George Soros said in 2018 that Trump had set the United States on the course of nuclear war with North Korea. And while Michael Schmidt’s new book on the trump Presidency outlines that we may have come closer to war in the peninsula than was previously known, it did not happen. Nor did Bitcoin go to zero, as Jeff Schumacher, founder of BCG Digital Ventures, said in 2019 on a panel. Or you could go way back — to 2004 — when a young and ambitious Bill Gates predicted he would rid the world of Spam.
And for the second year in a row, Russian officials and oligarchs have not been invited to attend the World Economic Forum. Elon Musk hasn’t been invited since 2015, even though he feels the need to say he was but turned them down. And, as if that isn’t bad enough, Henry Kissinger, aging Prince of Darkness, has reversed himself on the Ukraine War. In a previous life, the octogenarian war criminal was the world’s most respected “Putin Whisperer.” Gone are the days when publications like Time would ask, earnestly, about his fixation on Peter the Great. That having been said: Davos is probably the most appropriate place on earth to reverse oneself on a bad take because Davos Man, in general, gets so many things so very incorrect …
Finally: Fareed Zakaria, Davos Man:
Perhaps a little more “Wokeness”?
Oh, who am I kidding. This crowd revels in being asleep.
“The world’s most populous country has reached a pivotal moment: China’s population has begun to shrink, after a steady, yearslong decline in its birthrate that experts say is irreversible.” (NYT)
“Whoever killed Sollecito would be sure to gain the respect of ‘Ndrangheta: ‘The most extensive and powerful criminal organization in the world,’ as Interpol calls the group. ‘Ndrangheta, based in Calabria, operates in dozens of countries and generates $50 billion per year.” (VF)
“Twenty years after 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' its star is back with more high school horror as she battles to protect her younger 'Wolf Pack' co-stars — and her daughter — from industry abuses: ‘I hope that I’ve set up a safety net for these actors that I didn’t have.’” (THR)
Ex-roommate: George Santos used fake Jewish name on GoFundMe because he said "Jews would give more" (Salon)
Democrats Rediscover Populism—and Not a Moment Too Soon. (American Prospect)