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Davos Is A Grift And A Cult But It’s Also A Bid For Global Domination

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Davos Is A Grift And A Cult But It’s Also A Bid For Global Domination

"It's a Ponzi scheme," says an insider, "but it's also a cult."

Michael Shellenberger
and
Izabella Kaminska
Jan 16
World Economic Fund Founder Chairman Klaus Schwab speaking at the G-20 meeting Indonesia last November.

The World Economic Forum, which meets this week in Davos, Switzerland, is fighting back against conspiracy theorists who say it and its founder Klaus Schwab are seeking global domination through a “great reset” aimed at stripping the masses of their private property, de-industrializing the economy, and making everybody eat bugs. 

“‘Own nothing, be happy’ — you might have heard the phrase,” wrote World Economic Forum (WEF) Managing Director Adrian Monck last August. “It started life as a screenshot, culled from the Internet by an anonymous anti-semitic account on the image board 4chan. ‘Own nothing, be happy – The Jew World Order 2030’, said the post, which went viral among extremists.”

But what Monck claimed was inaccurate. The phrase, “Own nothing, be happy,” hadn’t originated on 4chan; it originated on WEF’s website. “Welcome to 2030,” read the headline to an article by a Danish member of parliament, “I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.” In 2020, after the backlash to the article, WEF took the post down

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At the same time, WEF can hardly be said to be a conspiracy. Davos is one of the most heavily publicized events in the world. Every conference, including this year’s, results in hundreds of articles about the world leaders, celebrities, and billionaires who attend the conference. This year’s 700-plus attendees will include heads of state, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and CEOs, including Larry Fink from Blackrock. 

But the WEF has proven to be highly secretive, even as it urges corporations to disclose more information. When Public asked WEF how Klaus Schwab Foundation invests its assets, a WEF spokesperson noted that the Foundation differs from WEF and added, “Swiss law does not require financial reporting for foundations.”

WEF says its wealth is managed by an internal Investment Committee that seeks to incorporate “environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in its investment strategy to manage the foundation’s long-term strategic reserves.” 

Still, WEF doesn’t engage in even the minimal amount of transparency through public disclosure that it constantly preaches to corporations and philanthropies. 

WEF’s 2022 annual report also touts a relationship with an unnamed hedge fund and a portfolio of assets that includes Swiss equities, Swiss bonds, global equities, and precious metals that is in part managed by Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management. 

Meanwhile, Schwab has become, without question, one of the most influential men alive. It wasn’t the head of Aspen Institute or even the Secretary-General of the United that was hobnobbing with G-20 world leaders in Indonesia last November. It was Schwab. Photos and videos from the event show Schwab palling around with the Prime Ministers of Britain, Canada, and New Zealand.

Why is that? What, exactly, are Schwab and WEF up to, and why?

A Cult Wrapped In A Grift Wrapped In An Enigma  

Klaus Schwab at the G-20 meeting in Indonesia last year with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (left) and with Canadian and British Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and Rishi Sunak (right).

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A guest post by
Izabella Kaminska
Izabella is the founder editor of The Blind Spot, a finance and business news website. She was previously editor of the Financial Times' Alphaville blog, and an associate producer at CNBC. She is now also senior finance editor at POLITICO.
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© 2023 Michael Shellenberger
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