Good morning. Every year, politicians, corporate grandees, civil society figures and celebrities head to Davos for the annual summit of the World Economic Forum. As this year’s version – the first at full scale since the coronavirus pandemic - begins tonight, First Edition is going to make the wild assumption that you’re not one of them. (Apologies to Idris Elba.)
Over the next four days, attendees will put their heads together in public and private forums with no less a purpose than “solving the biggest issues facing our world”. But in an era of global polycrisis, many argue that Davos is no longer fit for purpose – and instead acts as a reminder of how ill-equipped capitalist orthodoxy is to figure out a better future. One measure of its waning influence: neither Rishi Sunak nor Jeremy Hunt will be attending this year. But there will be more than 100 billionaires.
