The World Economic Forum formally opened its annual meeting of global decision makers in the Swiss Alps at the exact hour that Donald Trump returned to the White House, creating a strikingly divergent set of world stages for billionaire-led globalists and billionaire-led right-wing populists.
Pegged to the annual meeting of elites in Davos was a new report on Monday by Oxfam International showing that billionaires' wealth "surged" by US$2 trillion in 2024, triple the rate from just a year before, but the number of people living in poverty has changed little since 1990.
The Nairobi-based anti-poverty organization says in the past year the number of billionaires rose to 2,769, up from 2,565, and their combined wealth rose to US$15 trillion, up from US$13 trillion. Its report predicts at least five people will become trillionaires within a decade.
“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable. The crown jewel of this oligarchy is a billionaire president," said Oxfam's Executive Director Amitabh Behar, referring to Trump, "backed and bought by the world’s richest man Elon Musk, running the world’s largest economy."
The report mirrors the remarks of the outgoing U.S. president, Joe Biden, who warned against a "dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people."
WEF's gathering is expected to draw some 3,000 attendees, including business executives, academics, government officials, and civic group leaders. Trump, who has twice attended Davos, plans to participate remotely on Thursday.
Unlike the globalist agenda at Davos devoted to fighting climate change, promoting global health and deterring threats to global trade, Trump promises to halt climate-related regulations, revamp health agencies, and impose stiff tariffs on some of America's closest allies.
Despite the general differences between the Davos crowd and Trump's circle, there is some overlap among the technology executives and other C-suite executives, and the price of admission in both places is steep.
In Davos, the sold-out hotels can charge thousands per night and a corporate membership in WEF can cost up to US$1 million a year. In Washington, it was trendy for CEOs and businesses to donate US$1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.
For those straddling both worlds, however, both events could be attended by first attending the inauguration in the U.S. capital then hopping a private plane to Switzerland, where the main events in Davos start on Tuesday with a series of "special" addresses by world leaders.
Meantime, World Bank data shows it could take more than a century to eliminate poverty as it is defined now.
"Today, 44% of the world’s population lives on less than $6.85 per day, the poverty line for upper-middle-income countries," the World Bank reported in October. "The number of people living under this poverty line has barely changed since 1990 due to population growth."
