It is bullish but....

 

 

Also sharing an interesting write-up about the hypocrisy of the annual Davos WEF.

“Just Shut the Davos Conference Down”

 

 

This year's WEF meets in Davos, Switzerland, January 15-19, 2024. Photo: iStock.

Recognizing Davos is easy. It’s a small town in the Swiss Alps that is famous for skiing. It’s also famous for hosting a conference each year that is well-attended by rich people and government luminaries. 

But most people don’t even know the name of the conference or what they do there. 

Besides, we’d be better off if the conference either recentered to its mission or the whole thing was just canceled.

German economist Klaus Schwab started the World Economic Forum in 1971, in hopes of increasing collaboration between private and public entities. In 1971, we had the hot “cold” war, and then President Nixon closed the gold window and ushered in years of inflation as the world settled into relative currency valuations. The Middle East remained a hot spot, taxes and regulation crippled growth, and the Europeans watched as Germany once again rebuilt its manufacturing empire.

I don’t know if Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan went to the annual WEF, but Carter deregulated the airlines and trucking, while Reagan cut taxes. 

I would imagine that Steve Jobs didn’t go to the WEF before or even long after he created a personal computer in his garage, and it’s likely Bill Gates didn’t have a passport before he created Microsoft and BASIC. 

None of my economy or finance courses in the 1980s mentioned the WEF, nor did my MBA classes in the early 1990s. 

It’s as if the WEF showed up on our radar in the late 1990s when the internet was young and people were trying to figure out the disaggregated USSR. 

It wasn’t about public and private sectors working together more efficiently, it was about money. 

As the years have passed, more politicians have shown up, likely because more cameras have shown up. It’s like TED talks and the WEF gained popularity at the same time. But TED talks at least have a point. Other than talking down to the people who aren’t there (i.e., the other eight billion people on the planet), the WEF has a miserable track record and has set up itself for an even worse future.

The WEF did not move to end extreme poverty, capitalism did that. 

The WEF did not improve public/private sector ties. 

As for the future, the WEF decided to aim for stakeholder capitalism, a sort of communism (not socialism) lite. 

As long as you’re at the top of the heap — and those who speak at Davos definitely are — these things are awesome. They outline diktats that will make things “better” and then point out how people in certain countries must fund them. 

Notice that they don’t pass the hat at the WEF, requiring billionaires to cough up a large chunk of their personal fortunes to make good on these imperative issues. 

But even if the Davos attendees aren’t sending in all of their wealth, except a minimal stipend of, say, $20 million, they could improve the planet, from their perspective. If they believe that fossil fuels are harmful, then they likely know that the biggest villain is air travel. Within that sector, private air travel is at the top. 

Davos attendees could save the planet from tons of emissions by flying commercial instead of taking 2,000 (yes, that’s right, 2,000) private jets to a small village in the Swiss Alps so that they can take the rest of us to task for driving to work. 

Better yet, Davos attendees could do something that many workers are doing right now: meeting remotely. Instead of using any fossil fuels, the WEF crowd could use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or any app to “phone it in” …although that’s unlikely to happen. The WEF doesn’t solve issues, but it does give people a chance to be seen. If they aren’t effective, at least they can be thought of as authoritative. 

Which brings me back to the best way for the WEF to make a difference in climate change: Just shut down the entire thing. I won’t miss it, and I don’t think anyone I know will miss it. The only groups who will miss the WEF are hotel proprietors in that little town, restaurateurs, and reporters who pretend that they are doing something important.

- Rodney Johnson