(Niall) Ferguson and the billionaires at Davos

The Grumpy Economist ^ | January 26, 2020 | John Cochrane

[karpov]

In my last post, I commented on Joe Stiglitz view, heading to Davos, that billionaires and corporate leaders are anxious to pollute the air. In my wealth tax series I reported on the popular view on the Warren Sanders Saez Zucman view that corporate leaders and billionaires represent a regressive right wing political force, that must be stopped by any means including expropriation of their wealth, even if that means destroying the businesses that make them rich.

My colleague Niall Ferguson reports from Davos what seems actually to be on billionaires' minds:

[sauropod]

bkmk

[rktman]

Pertinent comment:

In public, at least. In private,

In quiet corners of the Davos congress centre you could hear Europeans wishing they could have at least a piece of this American action [Trumpian growth]— and complaining that Greta’s demand for “zero carbon now” was a recipe for zero growth.

... you say one thing in public and another in private. It was once the basis of life in communist systems all over the world. It turns out to be something capitalists can do just as easily,

Guess grrrrrreta got the message since she whined that their DEMANDS had been completely ignored. Well duh!

[immadashell]

...that must be stopped by any means including expropriation of their wealth,...

I'll help! I am a professional wealth expropriator! Quick, send all your wealth to me!