The World Economic Forum has just concluded in those pristine snow-covered mountains in Switzerland.  The theme this year was ‘Rebuilding Trust’ which gave me a good chuckle. Could this be about rebuilding trust in the tainted WEF brand?

Let’s face it, seeing squadrons of billionaires fly to Davos in their private jets who then bang on about climate change, inequality, poverty and geo-strategic instability is pretty hard to take. Who do they think they are kidding?

As for those cold-blooded dictators who are welcomed each year to the extremely well-catered confab – give us a break.

The real reason that Davos has flourished is that it’s an efficient way for crony capitalists, particularly European ones, to meet up and plot their next move to fleece taxpayers and consumers. What’s not to love about virtue-signalling at someone else’s expense?

Of course, Davos has always been a love-in for unfettered globalisation which benefits the capitalists but leaves some workers in the West devastatingly worse off. That’s the real reason why these well-dressed types profess to be concerned about inequality and poverty. Unless governments address these issues, there is always a fear that global trade and the associated business opportunities could be disrupted. Davos types are too busy personally to help out at soup kitchens, op shops and the like. But they are happy to sign a cheque – or for the company to sign a cheque.

There is always the possibility that discordant notes ring out from the Alps because heads of governments from around the world effectively have open invitations to attend. (This year was very disappointing in that respect: while France’s dilletante Macron turned up, not many other heads of government bothered. Needless to say, EU President Ursula von der Leyen was there – Davos has always been a very Europe-centric forum.)

The highlight – or lowlight for WEF chief, Klaus Schwab – was the attendance of newly elected Argentinian president, Javier Milei. A devout libertarian and freedom-lover, Milei really gave it to the crowd. Telling them that collectivism is a dead-end, he attacked the socialist agenda of the WEF crowd, leaving many attendees feeling a little uncomfortable.

Some of them will have perked up when he declared that, ‘I would like to leave a message for all businesspeople here… you are social benefactors, you’re heroes. Let no one tell you that your ambition is immoral. If you make money, it’s because you offer a better product at a better price.’

The real problem is that a great many Davos attendees don’t make money by selling quality products or services to voluntary buyers, but by manipulating markets and governments in order to extract deals from taxpayers and rip off consumers.

Notwithstanding the excitement of Milei’s attendance (who flew commercial to Europe), the bigger picture is this: Davos is increasingly being eclipsed by Cop, the annual climate conference held under the auspices of the United Nations – pause for groan here. Cop is the must-attend event, with the numbers who had signed up to attend last year’s gathering exceeding 100,000.

Gosh, it’s bigger than Ben Hur, although there are a lot of hangers-on in terms of bureaucrats and climate activists in the audience. In other words, it’s not the elite event that Davos is. The minimum entry-point these days to Davos is around $US200,000, although there are plenty of gratis attenders.

For billionaire players, Cop is also now a compulsory entry on the annual calendar because there is the real potential of grabbing some ‘free’ money available for anything that ticks the climate change/decarbonisation box. Even for those business types who are not directly involved in hoovering up money to invest in windmills, solar panels, green hydrogen and the like, there is the requirement to be seen to be getting with the program.

This is particularly the case for the big fund managers, including from our own industry super funds. They now flock to Cop. Even CEOs of emissions-intensive operations turn up, keen to be seen to be doing ‘the right thing’, as well as grab any ‘free’ money floating by to take up less emissions-intensive (but less efficient) technology that might be effectively foisted on them, particularly by the Europeans.

The absurdly named Inflation Reduction Act of the US has turbocharged rent-seeking in the green space as hundreds of billions of dollars are allocated to a variety of decarbonisation investments. To be sure, the rules have been written to benefit Americans – fair enough, I guess – but there is an awful lot of gaming that is going on to enable carpetbaggers from all around the world to grab some of the loot.

It was something of a jarring point that last year’s Cop – the 28th one – was held in the United Arab Emirates, the immense wealth of which is the result of the extraction of fossil fuels. The president for the event was some sort of sheik who also headed up the national oil company.

While he was prepared to go to great lengths to impress the Cop crowd, including the climate activists, he made the truthful point that there is no science that indicates that fossil fuels can’t be part of the mix in a sensible long-term climate policy. The outrage that followed was enough to put him temporarily back in his box, although there was no reference to a phase-out of fossil fuels in the final communique – a victory for the sheik.

It’s almost as if Klaus and his WEF team have been sensing the competition from Cop – as the preeminent event of world leaders and movers and shakers – with the odd theatrical performance that took place at the opening ceremony of Davos this year. Some weird chick dressed in traditional garb was seen to be puffing air into the faces of those elites unfortunate enough to be on the stage.

What was that all about? Were we being told that modern capitalism softened by concern for poverty, inequality, climate change, modern slavery, etc, etc. can be made compatible with the ways of the noble savage? Who knows?

Mind you, it did remind me of the major faux pas committed by our very own B1, Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, at Cop28. Forgetting perhaps that he wasn’t still in Australia, he uttered some sort of garbled welcome to country – or should that be the world – praising indigenous tribes who evidently hold the key to the sustainable management of the climate.

So Davos versus Cop – it’s a tight race these days. There is no doubt that a lot of gloss has gone from Davos, judged by the relatively poor attendance by senior heads of government this year. Thankfully, there were very few Australians who attended – too much common sense.

And the best joke of the party in the mountains was made by President Ursula who declared that the greatest challenge facing the world is ‘misinformation’.

I’m just pretty sure her idea of misinformation is not the one that most Speccie readers have in mind.