By George Christensen
Yesterday the global elites circled the wagons. The World Economic Forum, the Davos club that has tried for decades to dictate your future without ever asking your consent, has announced that Klaus Schwab, the man who built the Forum into his personal empire, has been “cleared” of all “material wrongdoing.” At 87 years of age, Schwab leaves the chairmanship not disgraced but congratulated. His wife Hilde, who has sat beside him for 50 years, was cleared too. And who takes the reins in this so-called “new chapter”? None other than Larry Fink of BlackRock, the man who controls more money than the GDP of most nations, and André Hoffmann, vice-chairman of the pharmaceutical giant Roche. Finance and Big Pharma now sit proudly at the very top of Davos.
Let’s not forget what brought us here. In April, an anonymous whistleblower letter, reported by the Wall Street Journal, blew the lid on what insiders said was really happening inside the Forum. The allegations were explosive. They claimed Schwab blurred his own finances with Forum operations. That he used WEF staff to lobby for his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. That he meddled with the Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, altering its rankings to punish Britain for voting Brexit while massaging the scores of governments he wanted to court. And it did not stop there. The whistleblowers painted a picture of a toxic workplace culture of intimidation, harassment and chaos that was later confirmed by interim chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who said flatly that he had personally witnessed a toxic environment before resigning this week.
Schwab, true to form, did not apologise or even step back. He went on the attack. He sued the whistleblowers. He sued his own board. He lashed out publicly, furious that anyone would dare question him. His wife Hilde was dragged into the fray too. But after months of pressure the board made its call on 15 August. They brought in Zurich law firm Homburger and the American firm Covington & Burling. And what did those investigators conclude? That Klaus and Hilde were spotless. That there was “no evidence of misconduct.” That the only issues were “minor irregularities, stemming from blurred lines between personal contributions and Forum operations.” That is the actual phrase they used. Irregularities shrugged off as a sign of “deep commitment.” They even said Hilde had spent over 50 years working without pay and that they “deeply regret” the scrutiny she faced. You could not script a softer landing. And with that, Schwab is now expected to quietly drop his lawsuits.
So Klaus Schwab departs with his halo polished by the very institution he built, not tarnished. But let’s remember what he leaves behind. For half a century he has fashioned the Forum into what Switzerland now officially recognises as “the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.” Make no mistake. Though it calls itself a foundation, the WEF enjoys privileges and immunities thanks to a 2015 Host State Agreement with the Swiss government. It is shielded like a sovereign body yet funded by corporations that pay hundreds of thousands of francs a year for access. Ordinary membership costs around CHF 60,000. Strategic partnerships run into the hundreds of thousands. And if you want to stroll the corridors of Davos and brush shoulders with presidents and prime ministers, that costs extra. It is a pay-to-play operation at global scale.
And what do they do with that access? They produce rankings and toolkits that ripple across the world. The Global Competitiveness Report, whose credibility was dragged through the mud by allegations of political interference. The Central Bank Digital Currency Toolkit, published for policy-makers. The Digital Currency Governance Consortium, convened to shape how money itself might work in the future. Their doctrine of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” where AI, biotechnology and cyber-physical systems fuse and remake your life whether you like it or not. Klaus Schwab wrote the book on it.
Then there are the words Schwab himself can never take back. In 2017 at Harvard, in front of David Gergen, he bragged that his Young Global Leaders network had “penetrated the cabinets” of governments. He even pointed to Justin Trudeau’s cabinet in Canada as an example. And who are those Young Global Leaders? Emmanuel Macron of France. Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand. Sanna Marin of Finland. Alexander De Croo of Belgium. Annalena Baerbock of Germany. Pete Buttigieg of the United States. Alongside them, tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin. Schwab was not joking. His network really has seeped into governments the world over.
And who could forget the infamous slogan? In 2016 the WEF itself published a video predicting the future: “I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.” It came from an essay by Danish politician Ida Auken. Summed up as “you will own nothing and be happy,” it has haunted them ever since. The vision of a world where ordinary people have no property, no privacy, and yet are told to smile.
All the while, the Davos set live it up in luxury. Greenpeace documented more than 1,000 private jet movements during the 2022 meeting, four times normal traffic. Tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon spewed into the sky so the elite could fly in to lecture the world about climate change. Steak, lobster and champagne for them. “Eat less meat” for you.
And now, after clearing their founder, the WEF turns to its new captains. Larry Fink of BlackRock, the man who controls over ten trillion dollars in assets through the world’s largest asset manager. His firm’s Aladdin system gives him visibility into trillions in global investments. During COVID, even the US Federal Reserve entrusted BlackRock to help manage bailout programs. Fink himself admitted in 2017 that companies like his sometimes must “force behaviours” on corporations regarding diversity and other metrics. BlackRock has been condemned for buying up houses by the thousand, driving up prices, and using its weight to impose ESG rules across the board.
Alongside him is André Hoffmann of Roche, heir to a pharmaceutical empire. Roche has faced its own scandals, from the sky-high pricing of Tamiflu to European antitrust fines. Hoffmann has burnished his image with philanthropy in conservation and biodiversity. But let’s be clear. With Hoffmann, Big Pharma takes its seat at the very top of Davos, side by side with Big Finance.
The WEF calls this “a new chapter.” It promises stronger governance. It promises to tighten its Code of Conduct after staff complaints. It promises to institutionalise itself further as a resilient international organisation.
The Forum insists it is impartial, merely a platform for dialogue. But what you see is something else entirely. An organisation that investigated itself, absolved itself, and now marches forward with even more power in the hands of the same elites who have already told you they want to “penetrate your cabinets” and ensure you “own nothing and be happy.” With finance and pharma now enthroned, this is not the end of Davos. It is its entrenchment.
Until next time, God bless you, your family and nation.
