Davos Man

by Peter S. Goodman

The United States had employed a Rube Goldberg contraption, with Mnuchin’s slush fund funneled through Jamie Dimon’s bank, and Larry Fink’s firm buying bonds on behalf of the Fed, allowing Steve Schwarzman’s private equity empire to borrow for free. All of this was supposed to trickle down through the rest of the populace. European governments cut out the Davos Man intermediaries and stepped directly into the fray, essentially nationalizing payrolls. Instead of rescuing billionaires, they rescued workers. From Denmark to Ireland, governments agreed to pay the lion’s share of wages25 for companies whose businesses were threatened by the pandemic provided they held on to their employees. While the unemployment rate in the United States soared, joblessness nudged up only a tad in most of Europe through the fall of 2020.