There's something extremely important here that is not being recognized, but those who can read between the lines are realizing it and it's scaring the shit out of people:
Elements of the Davos class **are preparing to defect to the Trump/populist movement.**
A thread🧵:
The world right now is terrifying to the Davos Class. Everything is going wrong, the populists have entered the inner sanctum and are openly saying "you guys are the problem your doom is coming," and there's a feeling the neoliberal intl. system is at the edge of the abyss.
2/x
The economy — which is what is keeping the US-led international order (i.e., neoliberal order, aka the American empire) afloat for now — is looking BAD. Even if Trump were to *lose* the presidential election, its understood that things would break.
3/x bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
...and they don't think Trump is going to lose. These people, clueless as they can be, also see the opinion polls and can sense where things are going.
4/x
This sense of impending doom is creating A LOT of panic/denial in Democrat and neoliberal circles.
Election's unwinnable, stealing it again is harder this time because everyone's wised up...
5/x
nytimes.com/2024/01/19/us/…
....the legitimacy of their system ("meritocracy"/expert rule) is collapsing ("adults in the room" is now a joke), the international environment can't hold (see: Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, the Red Sea, etc), the rainbow coalition at home is starting to tear itself apart...
6/x
Democrats and neoliberals — who've spent 8 years convincing themselves and everyone else that Trump is an impending dictator — are convinced Orange Hitler is about to take over the Reichstag.
And at this point, Trump has said "fuck it, I'll be the monster you think I am."
7/x
Here's the thing though: while Democrats and progressives screaming that their ship is sinking and the icy water awaits, some of the cooler-headed neoliberal centrists are looking at the lifeboats and thinking "...actually, maybe there's an out here."
8/x
For these Davos class types, this isn't their first rodeo.
These financier/business types lived through the rise of Putin and the purging of the oligarchs, Xi doing similar and imposing "requirements" for companies wanting market access, etc.
9/x
Now, a good number of them *genuinely believe* that a repeat of that may be in the cards for the US.
Wanting to survive, at the very least SOME of them will be willing to do a deal with the proverbial devil. Especially if he's hinting "sign up now or else."
10/x
"And what if I DON'T sign up?" they reason.
"Do I REALLY wanna take a risk being on the Trump admin shitlist? In a populist, anti-elite environment? With an impending recession/depression? In an increasingly multipolar global environment?"
11/x
Moreover, what if the Trump admin were to start confiscating businesses?
Boeing is already in deep shit because the planes are literally failing. People are getting worried. The anti-monopolist left is already calling for nationalizing and breaking up the company....
12/x
...what if a Trump admin did EXACTLY this?
Seize/nationalize the company, purge the board of directors (de facto deep state-aligned and/or political neocons), and hand the company or parts of it to politically loyal types like... Elon Musk?
"Engineers are back in charge!"
13/x
If Trump did this... who would be next?
Really think about it, especially in the context of a major economic recession/depression (which is implicitly in the cards).
"Who would stop the government from breaking up big banks?" That stuff would be WILDLY popular.
14/x
....and as an added bonus, it would help wipe out their political opposition support base.
The more technocratic economist populists are also salivating at the idea of crushing speculative finance and directing capital to productivity, American First manufacturing, etc.
15/x
So if you're a Davos class type — in finance, private equity, multinational business, certain think tank/academic/nonprofit types who depend on political connections — your gut instinct is to SURVIVE at all costs.
If that means a deal with the populist, well then...
16/x
Suddenly we have — as at the start of this thread — Blackstone's CEO saying, "Hey... we can't afford another Biden admin. Maybe we should keep an open mind about alternatives..."
Or Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan saying "Actually, Trump WAS right after all..."
17/x
It's still early days, but you can see the line of thinking is taking form with some of the cannier Davos types:
"I want to survive and stay in the game, so it's time to dump progressives, neoliberalism, and woke stuff, and play ball with Trump."
Watch this space people.
18/18
Follow-up thread since this one spawned some comments.
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