Plutocracy laid bare at Davos 2013 in Switzerland

[TonyGosling]

Translated from Swiss/German - The plutocrats in Davos

The plutocrats in Davos
An analysis of Philipp Löpfe. Updated at 15:22
http://bazonline.ch/schweiz/wef/Die-Plutokraten-in-Davos/story/1967898 5?dossier_id=1261

What was Ascot for the British aristocracy, the WEF for the new global plutocracy. The meeting will not take place by chance in Switzerland.

Philipp Löpfe author is in the department of economics baz.ch / Newsnet.

Known WEF participants
The WEF is a gathering of the international business leaders and heads of state. Opting for the 43rd Has filed forum.

Dossiers
World Economic Forum
Big-City Poster Davos
WEF seeks to dialogue with North Korea

If spotter aircraft succumbed
In her book "Plutocrats" says the Canadian-American financial journalist Chrystia Freeland (Reuters, "Financial Times") following anecdote: The wife of a highly successful New York hedge fund manager told her that her husband was in Davos much better versed than in Manhattan. "Home", she says, "he is always driven by a chauffeur, in the snowy Swiss village on the other hand the roads are too small for large sedans. Therefore, it is the only place where he actually goes on foot. "
The WEF in Davos is no longer the informal meeting of business leaders and political leaders that it may possibly have been once. Today, the WEF has become a cause of the new global plutocracy. Who is taking, not only accepted, occasionally to go on foot, so he demonstrates above all that he belongs to the elite and to the winners of globalization. Therefore the speeches like boring, slow, and the discussions of the champagne have become hot - yet each year in late January a very illustrious guests in Davos.

Of the Bilderberg conference to Wimbledon
As once the horse races at Ascot had been a mandatory event for the British aristocracy, the WEF has become the prelude to the meeting of the new plutocracy. Others will be added later in the year: The event of the Bilderberg Group, to be held at different locations. At the Boao Forum, the Prince Ling from China meet the Western elite. The events of the former U.S. president Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative, evolve into a must, as is the convention of the media mogul Herb Allen Sun Valley and the Aspen Ideas Festival. A short visit to the Wimbledon tennis tournament does also not bad.

Nearly 4,000 super rich live in Switzerland
Who are the new plutocrats? In banking jargon they are called UHNWI: The acronym stands for "ultra high net worth individuals," an English expression for the super rich. They have become a global group. «2011, there were 84'700 UHNWI in the world," notes Freeland. «29,000 possessed a fortune, which was greater than $ 100 million and 2700 owned more than half a billion. UHNWI 37,500 live in North America (44 percent), 23,700 in Europe (28 percent). And 13,000 in Asia »
Switzerland currently live UHNWI 3820. In absolute terms, the Confederation is thus at the fourth international UHNWI Hung. Divided by the population it occupies a solitary top spot. "Some countries have developed into a kind of a service company for the members of the global plutocracy," says Freeland. "For Switzerland, Monaco and this applies for generations. Recently, Singapore and Hong Kong also joined them. "

The rise of the new plutocracy
The new plutocracy owes its rise two factors: globalization and technological progress. Both together has meant that the income gap has opened up dramatically in the last two decades. Today, the ditch runs not between rich and poor, but between the middle class and the super rich. Who wants to belong to the UHNWI must not earn a dozen times as much as a mortal, he has to earn a hundred times more. This arouses aggression.
The plutocracy is benefiting from the descent of the nation states. It benefits from some scattered around the globe and consumers have become powerless states that are no longer in a position to impose reasonable taxes. That is dangerous. The anger of the middle class to the new elite is. Also in Switzerland. The emotional debate about the rip-off initiative is the best example. It is not left versus right, but middle class against UHNWI. It is therefore in the minority initiative and to the brotherhood of SP and parts of the SVP.

Switzerland will have to decide
Geopolitically this development for Switzerland is increasingly becoming a problem. During the Cold War it was a neutral island, which offered protection from communism threatened citizens. Today it has become a haven for UHNWI. Therefore, the pressure on our country, on the grounds of bank secrecy or because of tax treaties. To rant just on the United States or the even more evil evil EU is no longer enough. Switzerland will have to decide on which side they stand: on the side of the plutocrats - or the middle class.

[TonyGosling]

James Gibney may have lost his job now but this is a great article
now deleted from the Bloomberg site


Davos's Dubious Strategic Partners
By James Gibney Jan 23, 2013 1:27 PM GMT+0000
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-23/davos-s-dubious-strategic-par tners.html

The aspirational hypocrisy of the World Economic Forum is enshrined in its motto: "Committed to Improving the State of the World." Unlike other storied global conspiracies -- the Trilateral Commission, for example, or the Bilderberg Group and the Bohemian Club -- whose members are presumed to be in it just for the filthy lucre and power-mongering, the WEF makes a big deal of its embrace of rainbow-hued do-gooders. The Forum is forever trumpeting its commitment to transparency and inclusiveness along with a burgeoning list of initiatives to advance the same.

But let's follow the money -- where it comes from and where it goes, starting with the 100-plus strategic partners who, as the forum puts it, "comprise some of the world's leading corporate citizens and provide essential leadership in support of the Forum's mission." In 2012, they contributed slightly more than half the WEF's revenues (some 178 million Swiss francs, or about $192 million).

Consider one such leading corporate citizen: Axel Weber, co-chairman of this year's Davos meetings and chairman of UBS, Switzerland's largest bank. Last year, his company was fined $1.5 billion for its schemes to rig global interest rates. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission cited more than 2,000 instances of illegal acts involving dozens of UBS employees. And that scandal followed a $780 million U.S. settlement in 2009 over charges that the bank had helped U.S. clients avoid taxes. WEF founder Klaus Schwab's choice of Mr. Weber as co-chairman perhaps speaks volumes about his own values.

Other strategic partners include Bank of America Corp., which just agreed to pay Fannie Mae $10 billion to settle allegations that it had improperly handled mortgages; Barclays Plc, which also paid nearly a half-billion dollars in a settlement over manipulating interest rates and faces record fines for trying to fiddle energy markets; Citigroup Inc., which last year settled a lawsuit over sub-prime mortgages for $590 million; Credit Suisse, out more than a half-billion dollars for money laundering. I'll stop at the C's, leaving out Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Standard Chartered, and other financial strategic partners that are either under investigation or have collectively paid billions in fines for a variety of bad behaviors. I also won't go into the various settlements over allegations of bribery and bid-rigging by some of WEF's non-financial strategic partners, such as ABB and Accenture.

These companies may have skipped all the Davos sessions on transparency, ethics and holding stakeholders in high regard, but they have done wonders for the Forum's bottom line. From 2002 to 2012, partnership revenue more than quadrupled as overall revenue more than doubled. The Forum's headcount, meanwhile, has gone from 139 full-time staff members to 371.

Many of these people do good work, putting out interesting reports and holding one heck of a global salon. But the interests they represent are corporate -- no more, no less. "Improving the state of the world," added to the Forum's logo well into its third decade, comes behind networking and dealmaking.

A recent quote from Sir Martin Sorrell, chairman of WPP -- another Forum strategic partner -- is instructive. Asked about the right model for corporate taxation, he magnanimously told the BBC: "The right model is you make a contribution. All contributions you make to your stakeholders are a question of judgment. There are the rules," he said. "If then companies choose... in terms of building their long-term brands to make a contribution to all the stakeholders, all credit to them." Payment of taxes, in other words, is at the discretion of global corporations.

That's mighty generous of you, Sir Martin. As Oliver Twist once said, "Please, sir, I want some more."

I have a modest proposal for the Forum's strategic partners: If you want to improve the state of the world, start by obeying laws and paying your taxes. Until then, spare us the high-minded, multi-stakeholder palaver.

(James Gibney is a member of the Bloomberg View editorial board. Follow him on Twitter.)

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

This is a great story, wonderful!