Straight out of Davos

Good evening from New Economy Brief.

The World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos takes place next week. Elected leaders, corporate CEOs and the global business elite will once again converge for the Met Gala of geopolitics and economics. 

This edition of the New Economy Brief examines what Davos is, what’s on the agenda, the political backdrop and what civil society says needs to change. 

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What’s Happening?

Met Gala of capitalism. Each January, the World Economic Forum’s flagship event is held in the Swiss town of Davos. The event is a who's who of global capitalism, from corporate executives, to heads of state and senior politicians from the G7, G20 and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa). At the margins, expect to see civil society attempting to influence the narrative and inject alternative perspectives. 

Full attendance. Last year saw some notable names, like Meta and OpenAI CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman forgo attendance in favour of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Given the US has confirmed a bumper guest list ranging from the President to the Treasury, Energy and Commerce Secretaries (and more), expect CEOs from across the board to be there. 

Cooperating in a world of chaos. Official WEF framing emphasises strained alliances, eroding trust and the need to explore how cooperation can be renewed. This comes against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tension, conflict and economic instability. In the first two weeks of 2026, the US has toppled and captured the Venezuelan head of state and threatened to take Greenland by force. This follows military action in Syria, Yemen, Nigeria, Iraq, Somalia and Iran in just the past 12 months. So the themes of the conference seem increasingly at odds with the actions of the world’s leading power. 

Grow baby, inclusively grow. Inclusive growth is another major theme. AI-driven sectors have seen phenomenal growth, though talk of a bubble ready to burst abounds (see our recent digest for more on this). Evidence suggests that the investment, rents, profits, financialisation and debt agreements built upon the AI boom are funneling surpluses upward in what has been described as a ‘rent-seeker’s paradise.’  At the same time, broader economic conditions are sluggish, with low and stalling growth in many national economies. Global growth is expected to slow from 3.3% to 3.1%, and uncertainty continues to impact the outlook. 

Work it, sustainably. CEOs, billionaires and politicians will also be putting their heads together to build ‘resilient workforces and support skills transitions’ in an era of ‘profound change’. This may be a way of avoiding using terms like ‘climate breakdown’. Or naming the economic shifts needed to avoid catastrophic impacts likely to come without a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels. In 2020, Payal Parekh argued that despite continued focus on climate change, failure to address it is baked into the economic model that Davos attendees uphold. Given the focus on how ‘prosperity can be rebuilt within planetary boundaries’, it will be interesting to hear how the conversation squares with the massive expansion of energy and resource-consuming AI infrastructure like datacentres.

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Why Does it Matter?

Club Capitalism. On the surface, Davos looks like a forum for tackling the world’s greatest challenges. But the reality may be somewhat different. Journalist Peter Goodman has argued that most attendees are “the ultimate beneficiaries of the status quo” and are likely to resist any changes that could threaten their own wealth. Other international forums dedicated to tackling global issues are far from perfect, but they are less dominated by corporations, whose short-term objectives of profit maximisation and shareholder return often conflict with what is needed to tackle issues like climate change. 

This is why civil society organisations like Oxfam and the Patriotic Millionaires use Davos as a platform to highlight the increasingly extreme inequality in the global economy. Each year Oxfam releases new data on wealth inequality. It found that the wealth of the super-rich rose three times faster in 2024 than in 2023 (creating almost four new billionaires a week), while the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990. The data show wealth and power are being skewed toward a small and shrinking number of people. The public and wealthy people alike are concerned about this power, and its ‘undue influence’ on politics.

So what can be done about it? Calls for wealth taxation, at both national and international levels, continue to garner attention as a lever to pay for public services and check the exploding wealth of the super-rich. Groups like Tax Justice UK are spearheading the calls domestically, while rising French economist Gabriel Zucman is among the notable figures advocating a global minimum tax, having worked with the Brazilian Presidency of the G20 to draw up proposals.

On a structural level, negotiations continue to establish an effective forum to set international tax rules and prevent a race to the bottom. 125 countries voted to introduce a United Nations convention on tax, aiming to replace the OECD group of wealthy countries that has assumed this responsibility to date. The carveout given to US multinationals has brought the limitations of the current approach into sharp focus - they are now exempt from the previously agreed global minimum corporation tax. However, without the USA, can progress be made or will it be a toothless forum unable to do anything in reality?

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What Next?

If we’re unlikely to see progress on tackling thorny global issues at Davos, where else should we be looking this year? 

Negotiations on the UN Tax Convention are set to take place in early February in New York. Discussions are planned about the framework convention itself, and about protocols on taxing cross-border income, and on preventing and resolving tax disputes. The UK government’s engagement is one to watch; it has failed to support progress to date. After the UN climate talks in December failed to move forward on the issue, a ‘coalition of the willing’ will meet in Colombia in April, with the host nation and the Netherlands responsible for advancing efforts to phase out fossil fuels. Seeing who turns up and commits to ambitious action will be key. 

With continued economic turbulence, rising unilateral action and potential for conflicts to expand further, big progress at traditional economic forums seem unlikely. For now, regionalised or bespoke efforts to address global challenges may offer the best prospects for positive international cooperation. Achieving true impact in these arenas may have larger ripple effects which could ultimately make both legacy forums and exclusive groups like Davos less relevant.