DAVOS - WHERE THE 1% DETERMINE HOW THEY WILL EXTRACT MORE FROM THE 99%

 

How the Global Elites Will Reshape the World as They Plan the Great Reset

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Na3Px0ROuc

Oxfam Demands Windfall Talks on Food and Energy Companies at WEF’s Davos Summit

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FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images

JACK MONTGOMERY

16 Jan 20230

2:05

Oxfam, a British-origin confederation of charities once geared chiefly towards fighting famine, is pushing windfall taxes on food companies at Davos.

Oxfam, founded as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief during the Second World War, is today a major international non-governmental organization with 19 affiliates “working together with thousands of partner organizations in countries around the world” and an annual income approaching one billion dollars, and is one of several NGOs represented at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in the elite ski resort of Davos, Switzerland.

This year, it has kicked off its contribution to the infamous nexus of political, business, and so-called third sector leaders by lobbying for windfall taxes not just on energy companies, but on food companies, complaining that they are making too much money out of the uncertainty in the global food supply chain caused in part by the invasion of Ukraine, a major food producer, and the associated Western sanctions war on Russia, also a major food producer and also a major source of fertiliser.

“The number of billionaires is growing, and they’re getting richer, and also very large food and energy companies are making excessive profits,” asserted Oxfam’s executive director Gabriela Bucher, in comments to reporters quoted by German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle  (DW).

“What we’re calling for is windfall taxes, not only on energy companies but also on food companies to end this crisis profiteering,” Bucher added.

DW notes that one European Union government, in Portugal, has already imposed a 33 per cent windfall tax on food companies recording profits 20 per cent over their average for the last four years.

Communist China ‘Always in Step with the Davos Spirit’ – CCP Media

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Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images

JACK MONTGOMERY

16 Jan 20230

2:08

China has “always” been “in step with the Davos Spirit”, according to a newspaper which serves as a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece.

An editorial published by the Global Times, wholly owned by the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the People’s Daily, has given full-throated endorsement to this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in the elite ski resort of Davos, Switzerland.

“It should be underlined that China’s propositions and voices are always in step with the Davos Spirit and have provided a strong support for it,” said the editorial, indicating that the communist regime in Beijing (Peking) is in lockstep with the nexus of globalist political leaders, ultra-rich plutocrats, and representatives of sprawling non-governmental organisations who are convening in the Swiss Alps.

Indeed, the Global Times stressed that “[s]ince 1979, China has never missed a WEF [summit]” — 1979 being the year Communist China began taking development assistance from the United Nations — adding that not only is “the Davos Spirit with openness and cooperation as core [sic] is also resonating with China” but that “China’s ideals and achievements also made the Davos Spirit more dazzling.”

The Davos summit in 2022 proved to be a productive event for China, despite its digital format and Beijing’s increasingly belligerent geopolitical stance, with Chinese officials able to hobnob with U.S. President Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry despite record emissions, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky bizarrely backing Chinese inaction on Russia’s invasion of his country,  and Chinese tech giant Alibaba unveiling that it is developing an “individual carbon footprint tracker” to monitor public behaviour.

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Sky-High Hypocrites: Davos Elites Hit Turbulence over Love of Private Jets

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JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty, File

SIMON KENT

15 Jan 20230

3:26

The globalist elites and their private jets are now landing in Davos, Switzerland, for yet another World Economic Forum (WEF) built on a week of fine dining and billionaire back slapping in luxurious surrounds – with a few meetings in between.

As they do they’re drawing contempt for their hypocrisy as elsewhere mere mortals are hectored to stop their own use of regular commercial air travel in the name of saving the planet.

More than a thousand private jets delivered dignitaries to last year’s summit in the plush Swiss holiday resort, a Greenpeace study revealed on Friday, and the sheer volume of flights generated four times the carbon dioxide emissions such aircraft would create in an average week, according to the report.

Greenpeace released the analysis, conducted by Dutch consultancy CE Delft, ahead of this year’s round of moneyed self-congratulation which begins tomorrow.

“Europe is experiencing the warmest January days ever recorded and communities around the world are grappling with extreme weather events supercharged by the climate crisis,” Klara Maria Schenk, transport campaigner for Greenpeace in Europe, said in a statement.

“Meanwhile, the rich and powerful flock to Davos in ultra-polluting, socially inequitable private jets to discuss climate and inequality behind closed doors,” Schenk added, noting the WEF has long warned of impending doom because of the “world-wide disaster” of climate threats.

Of all the 1,040 private jets studied, 53 percent were for short-haul trips less than 466 miles, while 38 percent were under 311 miles, according to the report.

Greenpeace accused attendees of “ecological hypocrisy” before asking just why the WEF claims it is committed to the global goal of keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) when the emissions generated from all the private jets flying in and out of airports serving Davos last year were equivalent to those produced by about 350,000 average cars for a week.

Not that this is the first time the privileged Davos members have been accused of hypocrisy, demanding others change their ways while they board their luxury private jet transport.

File/Hungarian-born U.S. investor and philanthropist George Soros addresses the assembly on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 24, 2022. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

File/A policeman in camouflage clothing stands on the rooftop of a hotel, next to letters covered in snow reading ‘Davos’, near the Congress Centre ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting on January 21, 2019 in Davos, eastern Switzerland. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty)

As Breitbart News reported, back in 2015 a squadron of 1,700 jets rumbled into Davos and the Swiss Air Force was so overwhelmed by the air traffic it was forced to open up a military air base for the first time ever to absorb the load.

In 2018 it happened again when the number of private jets spiked 335 percent during the meeting, according to Air Charter Service (ACS).

Research commissioned by the jet hire company found an average 218 private jet movements a day during the week’s forum, compared to the 65 daily flights Swiss airfields usually deal with.

The 2023 WEF meeting has a self-proclaimed goal of tackling the climate emergency and other “ongoing crises” and has called for “bold collective action.”

Private jet flights are not regulated in the E.U., but they are the most polluting mode of transport per passenger kilometre.

The French government has already banned short haul commercial flights where “green alternatives ” are available and New Zealand may follow soon.

Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin Head to Davos as Election Cycle Kicks Off

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AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

JACOB BLISS

13 Jan 2023Washington, DC0

2:45

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), both up for reelection in 2024, are reportedly heading to Davos, Switzerland, to be part of the United States delegation for the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The annual World Economic Forum, where heads of state and executives will meet in Davos as the global economy wobbles on the verge of recession, is set to begin next week. Manchin and Sinema will be a part of this year’s United States delegation, along with a few other senators.

What’s interesting about Manchin and Sinema is that the two have yet to make an official announcement on whether or not they will be running for reelection in this cycle, when both of them are up for reelection. They are in tough political spots, as each has caused problems with legislation in the past and, in some cases, voted against the party they caucus with.

They will reportedly be joining several Biden administration officials, including Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, FBI Director Christopher Wray, U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power, and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Sen. Sen. Jim Risch (D-ID) may also be in attendance.

The Senate Democrats will have to try to keep, if not expand, their 51-seat majority. That would involve potentially spending millions on protecting Sinema, who has already been fielding potential primary challengers after recently changing her party to independent. In addition, some Democrat senators running in states that have turned redder over the years — like Manchin — and open seats left by retiring members, such as Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), will be vulnerable and will need funding.

In the next election cycle, 23 of the 33 Senate seats up for reelection are currently held by Democrats or left-leaning Independents, and former President Donald Trump won six of their states by double digits in at least one of his presidential elections.

The New York Times has acknowledged that some of the most challenging seats for the Democrats to keep will be Sen. Jon Tester’s Montana seat, Sen. Sherrod Brown’s Ohio seat, and Manchin’s West Virginia seat. Trump won those states by 16, 8, and 29 percent respectively in 2020.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.

Fed chief Powell defends the dictatorship of finance capital

Nick Beams

14 hours ago

A speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell earlier this week provided an insight into the anti-democratic and outright dictatorial character of the central banks, acting in the interests of finance capital, as they pursue a policy of deliberately increasing unemployment in an effort to slash workers’ wages.

Speaking at a symposium in Stockholm, Sweden Powell said, “Restoring price stability when inflation is high can require measures that are not popular in the short term as we raise interest rates to slow the economy.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference at the Federal Reserve Board building in Washington, Wednesday, July 27, 2022. [AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta]

He added, “The absence of direct political control over our decisions allows us to take these necessary measures without considering short-term political factors.”

In other words, in seeking to impose economic “pain” on the population—in the form of increasing the unemployment rate to suppress workers’ wages—the Fed must operate as a law unto itself, in the interests of the corporations, the stock market and finance capital.

The effects of the Federal Reserve’s class war policy have already begun to be felt in major layoffs at high-tech companies and firms such as Amazon, hitting tens of thousands of workers, while manufacturing firms, including the auto industry, prepare savage cost-cutting measures.

Powell’s justification for seeking to increase unemployment is the claim that rising wages are driving inflation. In reality, wages are falling in real terms, even as corporate profits soar.

The inflationary crisis is driven by the impact of the Federal Reserve’s cheap money policies over the past decade and a half; the contraction of the labour force because of COVID deaths, continuing infections and the impact of Long COVID; the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine; and, not least, price-gouging by major corporations, particularly in the food and energy sectors.

The Fed aims to place the burden of this deepening crisis of capitalism on to the backs of the working class through its high interest rate regime.

While this has caused turbulence in the stock market, it is seen as a necessary price for achieving the strategic objective of battering back the resistance of the working class.

The longer the monetary tightening continues, the clearer this goal is set out in the Fed’s own policy statements and minutes of the meetings of its governing body.

Its documents and statements are replete with references to the “tight” labour market, that even limited wage rises, well below the rate of inflation, are incompatible with its objective of 2 percent inflation, and that the labour supply must be increased, i.e., by driving up unemployment.

These policies, to use Powell’s own words, are aimed at inflicting “pain” on millions of working class families, while imposing devastation on billions of people around the world.

In imposing its policies, the Fed, along with the capitalist media, promote the lie that it is not a class agenda, and that its measures are carried out in the interests of the economy.

But the history of “central bank independence” shows that this demand was advanced at a definite stage in the deepening crisis of world capitalism that had been building up over decades.

Central bank independence was brought forward at the beginning of the 1990s.

Global capitalism had just concluded a vicious class war program, spearheaded by the then-Fed Chair Paul Volcker, who instituted a record-high interest rate regime to crush a wages movement of the working class. It induced the deepest recessions since the 1930s, wreaking devastation from which whole areas in the US have still not recovered.

The aim of central bank independence was to ensure that this weapon of class war be permanently installed.

It was facilitated ideologically by the liquidation of the USSR in 1991 and the capitalist triumphalism that accompanied it. The end of the USSR demonstrated, it was falsely claimed, that socialism failed and therefore capital had to be given free rein to impose its demands.

The bringing down of inflation after central bank independence had begun was held up as proof of its efficacy. But the low inflation of that period had next to nothing to do with the actions of central banks. It was a product of the globalisation of production, above all the integration of China into the world market, and the output of lower-cost goods.

Central bank independence, it was claimed, was also responsible for the so-called Great Moderation, comprising low inflation, the absence of deep recessions and low interest rates.

That fiction exploded in 2008 with the eruption of the global financial crisis—the most serious collapse since the Great Depression of the 1930s—a result not least of the speculation resulting from the provision of cheaper money by the Fed.

It was a profound experience for the working class in the US and internationally.

As workers lost their jobs, saw their wages reduced, had their houses repossessed and spent considerable periods of time unemployed, they witnessed money being delivered hand over fist to the corporations and the banks through direct government bailouts and by the trillions of dollars delivered by the Fed, via quantitative easing, to the banks, speculators and outright criminals whose activities had sparked the crisis.

The claim that the Fed was an independent institution, standing above class interests and presiding over financial activity in the interests of the economy and the population, was delivered a powerful blow.

The lie was further exposed with the onset of the pandemic in 2020, as the Fed pumped at least $4 trillion into the financial system to stave off its collapse.

This sent the fortunes of moguls such as Amazon boss Jeff Bezos into the stratosphere, while workers’ lives and those of their families were devastated by the pandemic, and the exploitative conditions of work in health care, education and many other parts of the economy were intensified.

Powell claims that his actions are justified by the greater good of the “economy.”

This is intended to instill the belief in the minds of workers that nothing can be done to change the present situation, and that there is no alternative but to submit to the dictates of the financial oligarchy as they impose the deepening crisis of the capitalist order on them.

The situation presents itself altogether differently when it is realized that society and its economy are not shaped by eternal and unalterable conditions, but by the class struggle.

In this struggle, the Federal Reserve, which had for decades blown a series of financial bubbles that massively enriched the financial oligarchy, speaks for the capitalist ruling class in its effort to impoverish and oppress the vast majority of the population.

The response of the working class to this offensive by the financial oligarchy is taking the form of the upsurge of the class struggle all over the world. The working class must take this struggle forward with a conscious fight for socialism, aiming to take political power, reconstruct the economy based on public ownership and democratic control, and ensure its vast resources are used to meet human needs.