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Page added on January 21, 2016
Davos Participants Seek Out ‘Stardust’ Moments
At the World Economic Forum here, heads of state, billionaire investors and corporate chiefs meet to discuss the state of politics and regulation, and tackle the biggest challenges facing societies globally. This year, they are sending warning signals about the state of the markets.
But ask some of the men and women at Davos whether the forum itself is a pulse on what’s happening around the globe, and they will tell you something different.
“This is a great rearview mirror place,” said William F. Browder, at one time the largest foreign investor in the Russian stock market, and the founder of Hermitage Capital Management. “It’s a contrary indicator of what’s going on in the world,” Mr. Browder said, adding that no one last year predicted the collapse of commodity prices or the stock market rout that started in China and ricocheted across the globe.
Mr. Browder, who said he had been coming to Davos for 19 years, added that nobody who attends ever predicts any important event.
But to look forward or backward is not really why the Davos man (and the occasional Davos woman) comes each year. Rather, it is to network. And to mingle with the rest of the ultrarich and influential.
Billionaire investors like Ray Dalio and Paul E. Singer, and chief executives like James P. Gorman and Martin Sorrell, were swarmed by people seeking a few words with them, if even for just a minute, at the Congress Center in downtown Davos on Wednesday where most of the annual meeting takes place.
“I’m in Davos,” one man declared when he answered his phone. Another man could be overheard telling his companion loudly, “I’m going to a dinner, and Chuck Hagel is speaking.” He added, “It’s not often you hear someone like him speak.”
The endless lines for security checks and the bodyguards and police who walk the halls help to give the event — and those who attend — a sense of importance.
Davos provides a stardust effect of sorts. Participants talk favorably about that “Davos moment” — as if describing a scene in a movie — when they have a meaningful conversation with someone famous they did not already know.
For Anthony Scaramucci, who runs the investment firm SkyBridge Capital, that standout moment happened Wednesday morning, even though he has attended the forum more than a handful of times, he said. He found himself standing with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Mr. Scaramucci told Mr. Biden that the two share a hometown: Scranton, Pa.
“He says: ‘Anthony, give me your phone, I’m calling your mom,’ ” Mr. Scaramucci recalled. It was 3 a.m. in Scranton when Mr. Biden first suggested calling Mr. Scaramucci’s mother. About two and a half hours later, Mr. Scaramucci yielded, handing the phone to Mr. Biden, he said.
Mr. Biden talked for so long that “the handlers are trying to push him to get going, and he’s like, ‘back off,’ ” Mr. Scaramucci added.
For some, Davos fatigue has crept in around the edges. When asked why he still attended despite concerns about whether the discussions at the forum were still relevant, one person, an investor who declined to be identified, chalked it up to a “bad habit.”
Yet he quickly added that the forum afforded him the opportunity to meet with a concentrated collection of high-powered contacts in one place, outside of their comfort zones.
22 Comments on "Davos Participants Seek Out ‘Stardust’ Moments"
twocats on Thu, 21st Jan 2016 5:40 pm
God, we are so fantastically powned it’s sad.
Apneaman on Thu, 21st Jan 2016 5:47 pm
Davos
If ever there was a time and place for a “once in a 1000 years weather disaster” or accidental gas explosion.
twocats on Thu, 21st Jan 2016 5:58 pm
Yep, usually when people ask me about “solutions” at some point I include, “kill off the top 0.1 – 2% wealthiest people on the planet. People usually respond that that wouldn’t solve anything, but I retort that it would finally make any real solution more feasible.
makati1 on Thu, 21st Jan 2016 6:50 pm
The world would be a better place if Davos had been nuked while they were meeting there.
Apneaman on Thu, 21st Jan 2016 7:21 pm
The level of corruption and incompetence by the elite and their managerial class just keeps climbing. Pathetic.
How a mere inch of snow turned DC into a total nightmare
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/21/10807754/snow-dc-icy-roads-chaos
Mayor Bowser apologizes for “inadequate response” to storm
http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/dc/2016/01/21/mayor-bowser-apologizes-inadequate-response-storm/79109504/
paulo1 on Thu, 21st Jan 2016 9:22 pm
I know security is beyond high at Davos. Nevertheless, I find it incredible no one has figured out a way to disrupt it and make the little weasels run for their lives. Oh well….. I guess they’ll keep pulling strings until it breaks.
twocats on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 12:00 am
Paulo1 – or just in general. no kitchen servant, pool side attendant, groundskeeper ever just loses it and stabs one of these mfers? Its hard to believe, but I think that’s because there’s such an aura around these powerful individuals it in thralls those around them. It would take a person of not only extreme awareness but also sacrifice to fall on that sword and take one of these bastards out. And even then, it would only have an effect if it became a thing – you’d need to take out at least a few thousand (them and their apparatchiks – politicians / newsmedia icons).
How else to explain this moron:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2016/01/21/blackstone-ceo-surprised-american-voters-are-unhappy-with-economy-politics-life/#197af91d70d9
Apneaman on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 1:10 am
What’s the plan for AGW consequences dear global elite? How to profit from it – disaster capitalism. Geo engineering, insurance schemes, and getting tax payer money to protect their property and interests. And of course to keep the cancer going at all costs. These cunts got where they are by being ruthless, single minded, profit seekers – they don’t know anything else. More. Their sole purpose for existing is more. Cancer in a tailored suit.
A Blizzard Roars Out of Climate Change’s Heart — Polar Warming and A Record Hot Atlantic Ocean Brew Up Nightmare Storm for US East Coast
“A Record Hot Atlantic Feeds it All
In the context of human-driven climate change, this is one of the reasons why our warming up of the world can generate extreme weather. It warms the Earth unevenly. It puts cold next to hot by driving cold out of the polar zones and by warming up huge areas of land and ocean. And it dumps more moisture into the atmosphere through an amplified evaporation from these greatly warmed Earth surfaces. Mix it all together and you get Anthony Sagliani’s ‘tremendous vertical motion.’
How does this work? In two words — latent heat. More specifically the convective heat energy available in water vapor. And where does most of that latent heat energy come from? It comes, for the most part, in the form of warm waters evaporating into the air above the world’s oceans. More specifically to our current storm it comes in the form of record warm to near record warm temperatures in the waters of the Gulf Stream off the US East Coast (See Dr Jeff Master’s ‘The Future of Intense Winter Storms”).”
http://robertscribbler.com/2016/01/22/a-blizzard-roars-out-of-climate-changes-heart-polar-warming-and-a-record-hot-atlantic-ocean-brew-up-nightmare-storm-for-us-east-coast/
Apneaman on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 1:18 am
Davos: How the rich have only got richer since 2000
As world leaders gather in Davos, new data shows how the world has only become more unequal under their watch
“For every $1 of wealth created since 2000, the poorest half of the globe have earned 1¢
The poorest 3.5 billion people across the globe earn less than £830 ($1,200) a year – that’s £2.30 a day. The same group own less than one per cent of all the world’s wealth.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/rich-have-only-got-richer-since-2000-davos-a6823281.html
Davy on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 4:20 am
Diminishing returns anyone?
“The Fragile Forty & How The World Lost $17 Trillion In 6 Months”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-21/fragile-forty-how-world-lost-17-trillion-6-months
“It’s official. More than 50% of the “wealth” effect created from the 2011 lows to the 2015 highs has been destroyed (despite the world’s central banks going into money-printing overdrive over that period). Almost $17 trillion of equity market capitalization has evaporated in just over 6 months with over 40 global stock indices in bear markets…”
Davy on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 4:34 am
The markets are the last stand for hopium. What is there for a wealth effect after that? It looks like a depression coming with too many people. Spice that up with a plethora of other converging and reinforcing problems and predicaments and what could go wrong….
“A Simple Warning”
http://www.kesslercompanies.com/content/simple-warning
“Yet, for all the upheaval in the markets over the last 16 years, the US stock market has not yet fallen to single digit p/e ratios. The S&P 500 p/e ratio is currently about 16 and it has been 33 years since the index last traded with p/e below ten. We maintain that this will likely fall this low before the downside of the credit cycle is finished. With earnings now, a single digit p/e would imply an S&P 500 below 1109; a whopping 40% below current levels.”
“It is important to note that these are glacial processes and we aren’t predicting this to happen on any particular schedule, but markets in 2016 have returned to a sense of fear and we just want to remind readers that there is a lot of space between 1870 and 1100 in the S&P 500.”
Apneaman on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 10:32 am
The melt down of the Arctic is the death knell for humanity. So what are the masters doing about it? Deciding how to carve it’s riches up. Cancer monkeys.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-21/the-world-has-discovered-a-1-trillion-ocean
Apneaman on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 2:32 pm
Elite aren’t impervious to skeeter bites. The return of ubiquitous diseases will be the great equalizer. Many a great man throughout history has been brought down by a simple mosquito or flea bite and invisible bacteria and virus.
More outbreaks are inevitable, and there are no signs that the US is properly prepared
http://www.businessinsider.com/more-pandemics-are-inevitable-2016-1?utm_source=feedburner&%3Butm_medium=referral&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29
There must be some heavy duty cognitive dissonance going on in Davos. The masters are aware of all the problems, but many of the fixes would require them giving up wealth and power. Think of all the brain power and technology they control through their pharmaceutical corporations, yet there is very little potential in the kind of profits they have become accustomed to by throwing many billions at developing new anti biotic. Tweak a few molecules on an existing hardon or happy pill and the money tap is wide open for another 5 year paten extension. It will be like COP21 – a bunch of positive proclamations that will be forgotten in 2 days as the BAU dopamine reward system reasserts it’s control of ape behaviour and fate. More
Apneaman on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 3:53 pm
Like I was saying yesterday, it don’t matter how much water is in ones area if it’s toxic. Crooked and incompetent government officials poisoning your kids on behalf of their 1% masters and budget balancing.
US authorities distorting tests to downplay lead content of water
Exclusive: Documents seen by the Guardian reveal questionable practices that mean people’s drinking water is at risk in ‘every major city east of the Mississippi’
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/22/water-lead-content-tests-us-authorities-distorting-flint-crisis
Oh the irony. There have been a few theories that lead poisoning helped contribute to the fall of the Roman empire by causing brain damage among the elite. How long y’all going to lay down for this shit?
twocats on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 5:05 pm
I think the wealthy essentially feel the system works, and where it doesn’t, it has more to do with human weakness, corruption, and laziness (projection most likely). If and when they do imagine really bad things happen they essentially figure that they are very far down on the list of those likely to be sacrificed, so if say 25% of the world’s population were to get wiped out by plague, only 1% of them would.
“We have enough wheat for a five-year winter. If it lasts any longer…we’ll have fewer peasants.” [Baelish]
Apneaman on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 5:05 pm
Is Humanity On the Eve Of Extinction?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2iyU4XjmaI
Apneaman on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 6:05 pm
Moody’s puts 175 energy and mining companies on downgrade watch
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bfa6f25a-c0ea-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2.html
makati1 on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 6:32 pm
Twocats, that ratio works both ways. It makes the odds of them surviving the hate of the 99% not very high. About like the odds of a police state with maybe 2 million guns total, including the military, over coming the 320 million with guns.
We have an exciting future ahead.
Boat on Fri, 22nd Jan 2016 6:38 pm
twocats,
If and when they do imagine really bad things happen they essentially figure that they are very far down on the list of those likely to be sacrificed, so if say 25% of the world’s population were to get wiped out by plague, only 1% of them would.
You got sources for this startling information? You feel bad enough for the poor to get rich and feed them? There are hungry people now. Why don’t you feed them now.
Apneaman on Sat, 23rd Jan 2016 10:28 pm
The 0.1%’s Marie Antoinette Moment
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/01/the-0-1s-marie-antoinette-moment.html
Apneaman on Sat, 23rd Jan 2016 10:29 pm
Tomgram: Barbara Ehrenreich, America to Working Class Whites: Drop Dead!
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176075/
twocats on Sat, 23rd Jan 2016 11:21 pm
You got sources for this startling information? You feel bad enough for the poor to get rich and feed them? There are hungry people now. Why don’t you feed them now. [boat]
Well at least your grammar is decent here, but your logic skills are almost bizarre. This isn’t a game of free word association. If I say, “the wealthy feel as if they are insulated from hardship” and you come back and say, “go get rich to feed poor people”. I mean, this website isn’t your own private rorschach test 🙂 you do realize your comments make zero sense. Maybe you just aren’t good at explaining yourself? You write almost as if you have ADD. You know, the medications out there work really well, and many people I’ve talked to say they “feel like themselves” for the first time. Something to consider.