The Brief – The Davos Curse

It’s cringe time again.

No, this isn’t yet another screed about the out-of-touch, wing-tipped “globalist elites” who jet to the Swiss Alps every year in mid-January to trudge through snow while pretending to save the world (pathetic they may be).

The object of our ire is closer to home – the fourth estate.

For many of our colleagues, winning a pass to the World Economic Forum is the journalistic equivalent of Willy Wonka’s golden ticket (without the Oompa Loompas).

In the big newsrooms of New York and London, in particular, a Davos ticket is a rite of passage – a sign that you’ve arrived.

It’s a Faustian bargain.

I know, because I’ve been there.

At no other event on earth does the supposedly ‘serious’ press, from The Economist to the Financial Times to Bloomberg, allow themselves to be so easily co-opted by the people they’re supposed to be covering.

‘Without fear or favour’?

A private dinner in a mountainside chalet with the CEO of Novartis? Pourquoi pas? A ski race with a bunch of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan bankers? The more the merrier! An invitation-only (virgin!) cocktail reception with the emir of Qatar, or was is it Abu Dhabi? What could go wrong?

It wasn’t until I found myself in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of Silicon Valley types one night, a tin of caviar in one hand and a glass of vodka in the other (which I’d filled from an elaborate ice sculpture doubling as a ‘vodka luge’) that I realised just how ludicrous the whole thing really was.

Don’t get me wrong: Davos is intoxicating, both literally and figuratively – which is why no journalist worth their salt should go anywhere near the place.

We are not there because we’re ‘important’. Quite the opposite, in fact.

One of the remarkable things about Davos is the success it has had over decades in producing actual “fake news.” In order to justify their presence there, the journalists who attend dutifully churn out canned interviews and other dross that wouldn’t even make the cut on a slow day back at home.

The big speeches are live-streamed anyway and could be covered from anywhere.

Potemkin village

Early on, Klaus Schwab, Davos’ German godfather who built a fortune with the event, recognised the importance of bringing along the press and making them feel important.

I didn’t really understand why until some years ago, when an investment banker from Lazard who was a regular at the forum told me why the press was so essential.

“You provide us cover,” he explained. Like most of the behind-the-scenes operators who populate Davos for a week in every January, he never actually attended any events to discuss lofty issues like saving the planet or ending poverty.

In other words, the forum itself is little more than a Potemkin village that allows dealmakers like him to bring important people together in a relaxed, safe and exclusive atmosphere. In Davos, a banker or defence contractor may just happen to run into a prime minister or president in the hallway of the Alte Post hotel.

Unlike official visits in their capitals, there will never be a record of their chat, much less its content. No one will ever even know it happened – especially the press, who are too busy schmoozing to notice what’s happening behind Davos’ many closed doors.

That, in a nutshell, is the beauty of Davos, the Lazard man told me.

The Curse

While it’s easy to understand the allure of Davos to the reporter class, there’s a risk. A week of rubbing elbows with the good and the great doesn’t just blunt their journalistic instincts, it makes them haughty, arrogant – Davos-like.

When they return to their newsrooms to find themselves sitting next to the tech editor instead of a tech billionaire, these poor journos descend into a downward spiral of namedropping and ‘next-big-thing’ predictions.

In my experience, they never last long, especially the senior editors. The lucky ones are offered a weekly column. The less fortunate are removed from the newsroom altogether to become ‘regional directors’.

For that reason alone, I’ll never set foot in Davos again.

Roundup

Davos – In her speech to the World Economic Forum, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday criticised Chinese trade distortions, while reminding Americans of their interdependence with Europe.

Energy – Von der Leyen also said that a modernised EU supergrid would be at the heart of an upcoming plan to bring down power prices.

Agriculture – The European Union and Malaysia announced the resumption of negotiations on a free trade agreement on Monday, breaking a years-long deadlock fuelled by disputes over palm oil-induced deforestation.

Health – US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the country from the World Health Organization has sparked widespread concern among NGOs and across the European political spectrum.

EU Parliament – Manfred Weber, the incumbent president of the European People’s Party, announced his candidacy for a second term, which could see him at the helm of Europe’s largest political family for another three years.
Listen to – What the EU stands to lose from Trump 2.0

Across Europe

Germany – Germany’s election frontrunner Friedrich Merz has promised to take the lead on a joint European approach to Donald Trump’s presidency, rejecting the idea that relations with the US would now be dominated by Europe’s far right.

Czechia – Masses of fibreglass debris from wind turbine blades and aircraft parts were illegally transported from Germany to a small Czech municipality, prompting investigations and calls for a European solution, as it was not an isolated case.

Italy – US Big Tech lobby CCIA Europe has complained to the European Commission over recent amendments to Italian law to halt illegal football streaming, claiming they curtail the freedom of speech and the Digital Services Act.

Hungary – MEPs are gearing up to probe allegations Hungary’s intelligence services spied on EU staff, a debate that, besides ongoing headaches due to the Central European country, underscores the EU’s lack of protection for its own officials.