Doug Casey on the WEF Meeting in Davos, By Doug Casey, 2/1/19.
Justin’s note: The
2019 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting is in the books. This is an elite
conference that takes place at the end of January every year. It’s held in the exclusive
ski resort town of Davos, Switzerland, and is attended by billionaires, heads
of state, and members of the mainstream media.
This year, the so-called
Davos crowd met to discuss the rise of nationalism, economic equality, and
climate change.
Now, I know most people
agree that these are some of the biggest problems facing the world today. But I
can’t help but wonder if these are the people who should be trying to solve
those issues. After all, you could easily make a case that these “masters of the
universe” are to blame for these issues. So I got Doug Casey on the phone to
hear his take…
Justin: What do you make of the
World Economic Forum [WEF] and the people who converge at Davos every year?
Doug: There are many
conferences like the one in Davos every year. Including the famous Bilderberg
Meeting, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Bohemian Grove in California.
The WEF meeting in Davos
has become perhaps the richest and most important. The WEF has about 700
employees. I went on their website, and the emphasis is on things like
“public-private partnership,” “stakeholders,” “social entrepreneurship,”
“sustainability,” blah, blah, blah. All the usual virtue-signaling
catchphrases. It was founded by a German academic named Klaus Schwab. Interestingly,
he got a PhD in Economics from the University of Fribourg in 1967, when I was
also there. If I’d met him, it’s most unlikely we would have gotten along.
It’s “invitation only”
to top business executives, celebrities, bureaucrats, fund managers, academics,
heads of state, NGO executives, and the like. The usual suspects. These people
form a subculture. They’re all members, or hangers-on, of various Deep States.
They prefer to associate with other people they consider to be peers. If it
turns out you don’t share their worldview, you won’t get invited back.
Davos is basically a
love fest for the international ruling class. They like to get together, hang
out, and schmooze because they all know about each other, even if they don’t
know each other personally. That’s the essence of what goes on at Davos.
Now, I know the
conspiracy types will say, “These people have gotten together to conspire
against all of us little people.” And some of that undoubtedly happens. That’s
nothing new. In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith pointed out
that whenever people in the same business get together they always conspire
against the public. Of course. That’s human nature, and nothing new. It’s just
the normal state of things that should be accepted as reality.
Justin: Have you ever attended the
conference in Davos?
Doug: No. Although I passed
through when I was living in Switzerland many years ago. In the unlikely event
I was invited, I wouldn’t have much in common with the other attendees. I know
that because I was
invited to Concordia in New York a couple years ago. It was made up of exactly
the same people who show up at Davos and conferences like it.
I found that I didn’t like
them. And I strongly suspect they didn’t like me. Even though I was on my best
behavior. But that’s nothing new. I occasionally get invited to dinner parties
in Aspen, with the same kind of people. But usually not more than once. Why
might that be? Well, as you know, I say what I think. And that’s usually at
odds with what the Masters of the Universe think.
I ran something called the
Eris Society in Aspen from 1980 to 2010. I described it as a gathering of people
that should know each other but probably didn’t know each other. It was, of
course, invitation only. Attendees, generally, had to have done something to
stand out. Lots of well-known people flew in to Aspen to give a presentation,
and just talk to the other attendees for three days.
Justin: What sort of people attended
your event? Was it the same crowd you’d find at Davos?
Doug: A very different crowd.
Typically about 100, not very large, but with very few corporate bigshots, NGO
types, government officials, or the like. Although we did get an unofficial – I
think – visit from the FBI one year. They wanted to be sure nothing subversive
was going on.
Eris drew lots of writers,
scientists, and thinkers. I’m not looking at a list, but people like Paul MacCready,
inventor of the Gossamer Condor. Stewart Brand, who founded the Whole Earth
Catalog. Sonny Barger, the president of the Hells Angels motorcycle club. Eric
Drexler, the leading light of nanotechnology. Harry Browne. Ron Paul. Karl
Hess. It was always a lively and entertaining gathering.
I enjoyed running Eris, but
decided that 30 years was enough of putting on an expensive party. That, and
everything winds down over time. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
is evident in all things…
Frankly I’m underwhelmed by
Davos. It’s just a bunch of rich busybodies, flying in on hundreds of private
jets, pretending to be do-gooders. Well, maybe not pretending. Some actually
are do-gooders, which is worse than pretending. I despise that class of people.
Justin: Doug, what do you make of
billionaires getting together at events like the WEF Annual Meeting to tackle
issues like economic equality? Do these people really have the little guy’s
best interests in mind? Or is that just window dressing?
Doug: It’s window dressing, and
hypocrisy. These people know they can’t solve the world’s problems by giving
speeches and eating hors d’oeuvres at cocktail parties. The rich have been
getting richer at an accelerating rate for at least the last generation. And I
promise you they’re looking to get richer. They absolutely don’t want to see
any basic changes in the system. They’re rich mostly because of central bank
money printing. It benefits them most directly because they’re closest to the
fire hydrants of money that spew out of Washington, New York, and similar
places around the world.
These people are the
self-righteous epitome of the Establishment. They’re absolutely opposed to free
minds and free markets. These people are, however, in a position to take
advantage of governments that control so much of the world’s economy. That’s
why you’ve got heads of state there along with heads of corporations, along
with so-called opinion influencers.
They get conventional
“economists” together to explain that’s happening and what “we” should be doing
about it. Of course they all pontificate about how much money they give to
charity, and how they believe in helping the poor. Coming from these people,
it’s all hypocrisy and BS. Of course my views
on “charity” aren’t
very mainstream.
These people are basically
there to show the flag, establish the pecking order, feel important, plant some
seeds for government policies, and maybe do a deal or two. Somebody described
Davos as the place where billionaires tell millionaires about how the middle
class should work harder to help the poorest class. That’s correct.
The bigshots at Davos aren’t
going to fix anything, except maybe a few elections. They don’t even understand
the problems. But it’s not hard to understand the attendees. Everybody,
including the African goatherder with flies buzzing around his face, wants to
be a bigshot. That’s true whether you’re hanging out at your local bar, the
local VFW, or local Rotary Club. If you’re running with the big dogs, you
probably want to be a bigshot at Davos.
Most of these people aren’t
the founders of corporations or creators of wealth. They’re mostly managers and
bureaucrats. They’re basically high-level cubicle dwellers. If there’s any
justice, most of them lose most of their money when we enter the trailing edge
of the Greater Depression hurricane. It would be nice to see the average guy do
better. But preferences mean nothing; that’s just a pipedream.
Instead, we’re going to see
huge growth in the welfare state and an
accelerating collapse of Western Civilization. As well as increasing
the celebrity status of borderline morons like AOC.
Justin: Yeah, I also find it ironic
that many of these billionaires flew to Davos on private jets to discuss how
“we” can stop climate change.
Doug: These fools love to talk
about global warming, which they attribute to carbon dioxide. Their jets and
limos are a small price to pay for the invaluable moral hectoring they give to
the hoi polloi, in their billions. Davos
people see the common man as the real problem.
As far as I’m concerned,
climate change has been around for about four billion years. And the biggest driver
of it, by far, is the sun. Not carbon dioxide. Without the sun, earth would be
a ball frozen at about two degrees above absolute zero. Not counting the
effects of cosmic rays, the planet’s changes in orbit and tilt, the solar
system’s rotation around the galaxy, and a score of other critical factors. But
these people don’t talk about that, because it has nothing to do with
controlling the masses.
Justin: Doug, the elite who attend
the WEF meeting in Davos and conferences like it are also deeply concerned
about the rise of nationalism and populism, and the threats they pose to
globalism. Should the average person be concerned by this?
Doug: Populism – that’s really
democracy. They’re both bad ideas, but not for the reasons the Davos crowd
would say. The fact is that Brazil, Turkey, China, the U.S., the Philippines
and other countries installed have elected populist leaders. Pretty similar to
the ‘30s and ‘40s when the world was run by “strong men.” The ‘30s and ‘40s
were not mellow times.
As for globalization – Davos
is all about globalization. Which is the politicization of world trade,
culture, and everything else. It’s about governments making trade treaties the
size of the New York telephone book – which I guess doesn’t exist any more, but
you get the idea. International trade – or any other kind – needs government
regulation about as much as a fish needs a bicycle. No… that’s an inadequate
image. About as much as a healthy human needs an affliction of cancer,
syphillis, and toothache.
I’m all for buying the world
a Coke and seeing it become a big, happy Kumbaya place. But that’s not what
globalization actually means. In today’s context, it’s the politicization of
trade. That’s not a good thing. But it’s exactly what the Davos people talk
about, because they control what governments do.
You have to remember that
the people who go to Davos, and meetings like it, are totally wired and hooked
up with governments. And the people who run governments all expect to become
centimillionaires by associating with the bigshot business types, and doing
favors for them.
That’s really what Davos and
the like are all about. These people are all welfare statists. They’re not
necessarily socialists, insofar as they don’t want to see government
nationalize industries. They understand how totally dysfunctional that is, and
that there’s no way they would benefit from it. Strict socialism, defined as
the State owning the means of production, is off the table.
They are, however, very
happy to have welfare states, throwing some table scraps to the unwashed
masses.
Again, they’re not
socialists. They’re welfare statists. Completely opportunistic, and absolutely
unprincipled. Despicable people, actually. Few are entrepreneurial, independent
thinkers, or free-market oriented. The attendees are almost all managers,
bureaucrats and politicians that thrive on stolen money – but not so much
directly stolen, in the form of briefcases of cash. That’s quaint in today’s
world. They steal indirectly, by making sure they benefit from state
regulations, state favors, and the inflation of the currency. That’s not only
much safer, but the money is bigger, and the way it’s rigged adds to their
prestige.
I’m very unimpressed by
Davos, Bilderberg, CFR, Concordia, Bohemian Grove, and their clones. And most
unimpressed by these people, although I assure you they’re very impressed by
themselves, and getting to hang out with each other.
Justin: Thanks for sharing
your thoughts with us today, Doug.
Doug: No problem.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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