Davos Man, page 42
11. the highest-paid CEO in Italy: Gianni Dragoni, “Industriali battono banchieri: ecco i 50 manager più pagati in Italia nel 2017,” Il Sole 24 Ore, November 25, 2018, https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/industriali-battono-banchieri-ecco-50-manager-piu-pagati-italia-2017-AEy YvKmG.
12. 77 percent of Italians: Richard Wike, Laura Silver, and Alexandra Castillo, “Many Across the Globe Are Dissatisfied with How Democracy Is Working,” Pew Research Center, April 29, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/04/29/many-across-the-globe-are-dissatisfied-with-how-democracy-is-working.
13. A textile workforce: Data from Prato office of Confindustra, Italy’s largest industrial trade association.
14. he employed a team of trendspotters: Sarah Forbes Orwig, entry on Amancio Ortega, Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amancio-Ortega.
15. Zara sold its wares: Suzy Hansen, “How Zara Grew into the World’s Largest Fashion Retailer,” The New York Times Magazine, November 9, 2012.
16. a fortune estimated at $55 billion: “Forbes World’s Billionaire List: The Richest in 2020,” https://www.forbes.com/billionaires.
17. supplying Persson with wealth: Ibid., “#84 Stefan Persson,” https://www.forbes.com/profile/stefan-persson/#2242fb925dbe.
18. nighttime raids on the plants: Guy Standing, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (London: Bloomsbury, 2011), Chapter One.
19. “an Islamic caliphate”: Shaun Walker, “Matteo Salvini; Vote for Nationalists to Stop European Caliphate,” Guardian, May 2, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/02/matteo-salvini-vote-for-nationalist-parties-stop-islamic-caliphate.
20. “ethnic cleansing”: Eric Sylvers, “Italy Far-Right Leader Gets Boost,” Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2018.
Chapter 4: “Our Chance to Fuck Them Back”
1. “I sat him down”: Jenny Johnston, “George Osborne: Why I’m Ready to Be Mr Nasty,” MailOnline, October 3, 2009.
2. people on trading floors in London: Peter S. Goodman, “‘Brexit’ Imperils London’s Claim as Banker to the Planet,” New York Times, May 12, 2017, p. A1.
3. “He looks permanently pink”: Andy Beckett, “The Real George Osborne,” Guardian, November 28, 2011.
4. “I want to be rich”: Patricia Crisafulli, The House of Dimon: How JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon Rose to the Top of the Financial World (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009), Chapter Three.
5. His grandfather had arrived: Duff McDonald, Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), Chapter One.
6. the family name: Crisafulli, op. cit., Chapter Three.
7. Dimon spent most of his youth: McDonald, op. cit., Chapter One.
8. His family home: Keith Flamer, “The Secret History of Park Avenue’s ‘Gothic’ Grande Dame (And Its $16 Million Penthouse Project),” Forbes, October 22, 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/keithflamer/2015/10/22/the-secret-history-of-park-avenues-gothic-grande-dame-and-its-16-million-penthouse-project/?sh=4863977fc93d.
9. He and his two brothers: Aaron Glantz, Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream (New York: William Morrow, 2019), Chapter Eighteen.
10. Their homes in Greenwich: Crisafulli, op. cit., Chapter Three.
11. Weill had grown up: McDonald, op. cit., Chapter Two.
12. Weill offered him a summer job: Crisafulli, op. cit., Chapter Three.
13. Weill denied Dimon a place: Ibid.
14. He persuaded JPMorgan Chase: Duff McDonald, “The Heist,” New York, March 21, 2008.
15. “Don’t do anything stupid”: McDonald, Last Man Standing, op. cit., Chapter Four.
16. “We do not yet know”: Roger Lowenstein, The End of Wall Street (New York: Penguin Books, 2010), Chapter Seven.
17. the largest Ponzi scheme: Erik Larson and Christopher Cannon, “Madoff’s Victims Are Close to Getting Their $19 Billion Back,” Bloomberg, December 8, 2018.
18. “too good to be true”: Jesse Eisinger, The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017), 234.
19. The bank shielded management: Ibid., 234–36.
20. Paulson soon rushed to Capitol Hill: Adam Tooze, Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World (New York: Penguin Books, 2018), Chapter Seven.
21. “Counter to what most people think”: Hugh Son, “Dimon Says JP Morgan’s Actions During ’08 Crisis Were Done to ‘Support Our Country,’” CNBC, September 14, 2018.
22. the five largest banks: Robert B. Reich, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It (New York: Knopf, 2020), Chapter Three.
23. spa treatments: Brian Ross and Tom Shine, “After Bailout, AIG Execs Head to California Resort,” ABC News, October 7, 2008.
24. “Be careful how you make those statements”: Eamon Javers, “Inside Obama’s Bank CEOs Meeting,” Politico, April 3, 2009, https://www.politico.com/story/2009/04/inside-obamas-bank-ceos-meeting-020871.
25. His Justice Department failed: Eisinger, Chickenshit Club, op. cit.
26. to buy back their stock: Edward Yardeni, Joe Abbott, and Mali Quintana, “Corporate Finance Briefing: S&P 500 Buybacks & Dividends,” Yardeni Research, Inc., August 21, 2020; as cited in William Lazonick and Matt Hopkins, “How ‘Maximizing Shareholder Value’ Minimized the Strategic National Stockpile: The $5.3 Trillion Question for Pandemic Preparedness Raised by the Ventilator Fiasco,” Institute for New Economic Thinking, July 2020, https://www.ineteconomics.org/research/research-papers/how-maximizing-shareholder-value-minimized-the-strategic-national-stockpile-the-5-3-trillion-question-for-pandemic-preparedness-raised-by-the-ventilator-fiasco.
27. Over the course of those ten years: Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo, and Sophia Paslaski, “Billionaire Bonanza 2020: Wealth Windfalls, Tumbling Taxes, and Pandemic Profiteers,” Institute for Policy Studies, April 23, 2020, https://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Billionaire-Bonanza-2020.pdf.
28. Dimon’s compensation: “JP Morgan Doubles CEO Jamie Dimon’s Salary Despite Billions in Fines,” Associated Press, published in the Guardian, January 24, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/24/jp-morgan-jamie-dimons-salary-billions-fines.
29. “I think a lot of it was unfair”: “JPMorgan CEO Dimon Says Government Cases Were ‘Unfair,’” Reuters, January 23, 2014, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-dimon/jpmorgan-ceo-dimon-says-government-cases-were-u nfair-idUSBREA0M0PL20140123.
30. Dimon called the rules “anti-American”: Tom Braithwaite, “Dimon in Attack on Canada’s Bank Chief,” Financial Times, September 26, 2011.
31. losses that exceeded $6 billion: Renae Merle, “The ‘London Whale’ Trader Lost $6.2 Billion, but He May Walk Off Scot-Free,” Washington Post, April 13, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-london-whale-trader-lost-62-billion-but-he-may-walk-off-scot-free/2017/04/12/14b3836a-1fb0-11e7-be2a-3a1fb24d4671_story.html.
32. “preference as a business”: “Nissan Statement: UK Should Remain in EU,” press release on Nissan website, February 24, 2016, http://nissaninsider.co.uk/nissan-it-makes-sense-for-uk-to-remain-in-eu.
33. only to “professional investors”: European Commission, Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers: Frequently Asked Questions, Memo 10/572, November 11, 2010, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fr/MEMO_10_572.
34. One hundred executives: William Schomberg and Guy Faulconbridge, “Hedge Fund Managers Crispin Odey and Paul Marshall Say Brexit Would Help London,” Reuters, April 29, 2016.
35. hedge fund manager Crispin Odey: “Rich List 2020,” Sunday Times (London), https://www.thetimes.co.uk/sunday-times-rich-list#TableFullRichList.
36. “Cluckingham Palace”: Harriet Dennys, “City Diary: Crispin Odey’s Chickens Come Home to (a Luxury) Roost,” Telegraph, September 25, 2012, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/citydiary/9563587/City-Diary-Crispin-Odeys-chickens-come-home-to-a-luxury-roost.html.
37. contributed nearly £900,000: Caroline Mortimer, “Brexit Campaign Was Largely Funded by Five of UK’s Richest Businessmen,” Independent, April 24, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-leave-eu-campaign-arron-banks-jeremy-hosking-five-uk-richest-businessmen-peter-hargreaves-a7699046.html.
38. hedge fund manager Paul Marshall: “Rich List 2020,” Sunday Times (London); ibid.
Chapter 5: “It Had to Explode”
1. “For our society to get better”: Michel Rose and Sybille de La Hamaide, “Macron Urges the French to Value Success, Rejects ‘President of the Rich’ Tag,” Reuters, October 15, 2017, https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-politics/macron-urges-the-french-to-value-success-rejects-president-of-rich-tag-idUKKBN1CK0TG.
2. “We believe that this presidency”: Sophie Fay, “Larry Fink: ‘I See a Strong Europe in the Years to Come,” L’Obs, June 28, 2017, https://www.nouvelobs.com/economie/20170628.OBS1352/larry-fink-je-vois-une-europe-forte-dans-les-an nees-qui-viennent.html.
3. “It’s nice to be wanted”: William Horobin, “In Shift, France to Speed Tax Cuts,” Wall Street Journal (Europe Edition), July 13, 2017, p. A4.
4. Nearly half of his campaign funds: Sylvain Tronchet, Julie Guesdon, and Cellule investigation de Radio France, “Half of Emmanuel Macron’s Campaign Funded by Major Donors,” Radio France, May 3, 2019, https://www.franceculture.fr/politique/comment-800-grands-donateurs-ont-finance-la-moitie-de-la-campagne-demmanuel-macron.
5. one of the three wealthiest people: Forbes list of billionaires, accessed August 5, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/#505b73e066fa.
6. Arnault’s yacht: Laura Craik, “The Fabulous World of Bernard Arnault,” Times (London), January 27, 2013.
7. “Emmanuel Macron’s program”: Bernard Arnault, “Pourquoi je vote Emmanuel Macron,” Les Echos, May 5, 2017, https://www.lesechos.fr/2017/05/pourquoi-je-vote-emmanuel-macron-1115472.
8. Arnault’s accountants had made: Monique Pinçon Charlot and Michel Pinçon, Le Président des ultra-riches (Paris: Zones, 2019), Chapter Two.
9. “What you call tax fraud”: Interview with Mediapart and BFM-TV, April 15, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt0as7x-kfs.
10. He took several trips to London: Antton Rouget, Mathilde Matthieu, Mathieu Magnaudeix, and Martine Orange, “Macron Leaks: The Secrets of an Extraordinary Fundraising Operation,” Mediapart, May 21, 2017, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/210517/macron-leaks-les-secrets-dune-levee-de-fonds-hors-norme?onglet=full.
11. “If we want to avoid this fragmentation”: Peter S. Goodman, “Europe Is Back. And Rejecting Trumpism,” New York Times, January 24, 2018, p. B3.
12. “If I cannot explain to people”: Ibid.
13. less than 10 percent of the French workforce: OECD.Stat, trade union density data, https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TUD.
14. contracts lasting less than a month: Analysis of government data provided by Philippe Askenazy, a labor economist at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris.
15. One in five young people: OECD.Stat, youth unemployment rate data, https://data.oecd.org/unemp/youth-unemployment-rate.htm.
16. he divided the unions: James McAuley, “Macron Could Succeed Where Other French Presidents Failed on Labor Reform,” Washington Post, September 2, 2017, p. A8.
17. like Nordic-style free enterprise: Peter S. Goodman, “Nordic-Style Designs Sit at Heart of French Labor Plan,” New York Times, October 26, 2017, p. B1, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/business/france-labor-reform-economy-macron.html.
18. lowering it by 70 percent: Anne-Sylvaine Chassany, “Macron Slashes France’s Wealth Tax in Pro-business Budget,” Financial Times, October 24, 2017.
19. Economic inequality was nowhere near: The World Bank, World Development Indicators: Distribution of Income or Consumption, http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/1.3.
20. Only Denmark, Sweden, and Belgium: Orsetta Causa and Mikkel Hermansen, “Income Redistribution Through Taxes and Transfers Across OECD Countries,” OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 1453, July 22, 2019, p. 11.
21. Between 1983 and 2015: Bertrand Garbinti, Jonathan Goupille-Lebret, and Thomas Piketty, “Income Inequality in France, 1900–2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts (DINA),” Wealth & Income Database, Working Paper Series No. 2017/4, April 2017, revised January 2018, https://wid.world/document/b-garbinti-j-goupille-and-t-piketty-inequality-dynamics-in-france-1900-2014-evidence-from-distributional-national-accounts-2016.
22. dramatic reduction in inequality: Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, World Inequality Report, 2018, p. 95.
23. explosive strikes: Eleanor Beardsley, “In France, The Protests of May 1968 Reverbate Today—and Still Divide the French,” National Public Radio, May 29, 2018, https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/05/29/613671633/in-france-the-protests-of-may-1968-reverberate-today-and-still-divide-the-french.
24. barely 20 percent of national spending: O. Causa and M. Hermansen, “Income Redistribution through Taxes and Transfers Across OECD Countries,” OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1453, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1787/bc7569c6-en.
25. Macron pledged to slash the tax rate: Simon Jessop and Inti Landauro, “France Lures Private Equity with Post-Brexit Tax Break,” Reuters, November 2, 2018.
26. nursing feelings of betrayal: Jacques Monin, Radio France Investigation Unit, February 21, 2019, https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/transports/gilets-jaunes/l-histoire-secrete-de-la-reforme-de-l-isf-elle-a-ete-precipitee-sous-la-pression-deconomistes-et-de-grands-patrons_3199431.html.
27. secretly met the president: Ibid.
28. Lifting the wealth tax: Henry Samuel, “Paris Overtakes London in the Super-Rich League as the ‘Macron Effect’ Lures the Wealthy to City of Light,” Telegraph, September 6, 2018.
29. the one hundred wealthiest people: Report from MM. Vincent Eble and Alberic de Montgolfier, on behalf of Senate Finance Committee, October 9, 2019, https://www.senat.fr/notice-rapport/2019/r19-042-1-notice.html.
30. The year before its abolition: Askenazy, op. cit.
31. Among the beneficiaries: Mathilde Mathieu, “Macron Caught by His ISF,” Mediapart, May 31, 2016, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/310516/macron-rattrape-par-son-isf?onglet=full.
32. bill for makeup services: James McAuley, “French President Macron Has Spent $30,000 on Makeup Services in Just 3 Months,” Washington Post, August 25, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/08/25/french-president-macron-has-spent-30000-on-makeup-services-in-just-3-months.
33. For his fortieth birthday: Adam Sage, “Emmanuel Macron Living Like a King, Critics Taunt After ‘Lavish’ Birthday Party,” Times (London), December 18, 2017.
34. new set of 900 dinner plates: Adam Nossiter, “Let Them Eat on Fancy Plates: Emmanuel Macron’s New China,” New York Times, June 15, 2018, p. A5.
35. new swimming pool: Kim Willisher, “From Plates to Piscine: Now Macrons Want a Presidential Pool,” Guardian, June 21, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/21/from-plates-to-piscine-now-macrons-want-a-presidential-pool.
36. “truckload of cash on social programs”: Vincent Michelon, “Video: Emmanuel Macron: ‘On met un pognon de dingue dans les minima sociaux,” LCI, June 13, 2018, https://www.lci.fr/politique/emmanuel-macron-on-met-un-pognon-de-dingue-dans-les-minima-sociaux-video-2090364.html.
37. “stop messing around”: Alissa J. Rubin, “That’s ‘Mr. President’ to You: Macron Scolds French Student,” New York Times, June 20, 2018, p. A5, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/world/europe/france-president-macron.html.
38. rubber bullets and tear gas: Alissa J. Rubin, “Macron Inspects Damage After ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests as France Weighs State of Emergency,” New York Times, December 2, 2018, p. A10, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/world/europe/france-yellow-vests-protests-macron.html?action=click&module=inline&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer.
39. reversed course: Adam Nossiter, “France Suspends Fuel Tax Increase That Spurred Violent Protests,” New York Times, December 5, 2018, p. A6.
40. “One can always do better”: Adam Nossiter, “Macron, Chastened by Yellow Vest Protests, Says ‘I Can Do Better,’” New York Times, April 26, 2019, p. A11.
41. “between nationalists and globalists”: Geert De Clercq, “France’s Le Pen Launches EU Campaign with Appeal to ‘Yellow Vests,’” Reuters, January 13, 2019, https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-politics-farright/frances-le-pen-launches-eu-campaign-with-appeal-to-yellow-vests-idUKKCN1P70RK.
