A meticulously researched, clearly reported and truly infuriating history of the way the top 1% of the world has systematically arranged the way societies operate in order to become even richer, all to the detriment of the rest of us. … The book serves as a call to arms and an invitation to fight back against the continued unabashed pillaging of all economies by those who least need it.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Powerful. … Goodman’s reporting is biting and bitterly funny. … Davos Man shows us that today’s extreme wealth is inextricably linked to a great crime, perhaps the greatest one of this century: the hijacking of our democracy.” — Washington Post
“Excellent. ... An angry, powerful look at the economic inequality that's been brought into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic. … A powerful, fiery book, and it could well be an essential one.” — NPR.org
"The Times’s global economics correspondent profiles five billionaires (along with workers and migrants across the world) to show how their exploitation of the pandemic has exacerbated inequality across the globe." — New York Times Book Review
“Well-written and well-reported. … A passionate denunciation of the mega-rich.” — The Economist
"A biting, uproarious yet vital and deadly serious account of the profound damage the billionaire class is inflicting on the world. Peter S. Goodman guides the reader through the hidden stories and twisted beliefs of some of the titans of finance and industry, who continually rationalize their bad behavior to themselves." — JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics
"Unflinching and authoritative, Peter Goodman’s Davos Man will be read a hundred years from now as a warning, bellowed from the blessed side of the velvet rope, about a slow-motion scandal that spans the globe. Deliciously rich with searing detail, the clarity is reminiscent of Tom Wolfe, let loose in the Alps, in search of hypocrisies and vanities." — EVAN OSNOS, National Book Award-winning author of Age of Ambition and Wildland
“One of the great financial investigative journalists, Peter S. Goodman delivers a meticulously detailed account of how the billionaire class has hijacked the world’s economy, feasting on calamity, shirking taxes, all the while spouting bromides about compassionate capitalism. I so wish this tale of limitless greed and hypocrisy was a novel or a mini-series and not the truth about the world in which we live. Reader, prepare to be enraged.” — BARBARA DEMICK, author of Nothing to Envy and Eat the Buddha
“New York Times global economics correspondent Goodman mounts a scathing critique of the greed, narcissism, and hypocrisy that characterize those in ‘the stratosphere of the globe-trotting class’… An urgent, timely, and compelling message with nearly limitless implications.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Impressively detailed. … Very readable, extensively reported. … A well-researched and lively explanation of how the global economy works, and the turning points that have enabled profiteering by the ultra-rich while undermining societal and democratic institutions.” — Charter
“Goodman is a skilled reporter whose stories of private affluence and public squalor are filled with detail and human interest.” — Wall Street Journal
Excellent. ... An angry, powerful look at the economic inequality that's been brought into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic. … A powerful, fiery book, and it could well be an essential one.
"A biting, uproarious yet vital and deadly serious account of the profound damage the billionaire class is inflicting on the world. Peter S. Goodman guides the reader through the hidden stories and twisted beliefs of some of the titans of finance and industry, who continually rationalize their bad behavior to themselves."
"Unflinching and authoritative, Peter Goodman’s Davos Man will be read a hundred years from now as a warning, bellowed from the blessed side of the velvet rope, about a slow-motion scandal that spans the globe. Deliciously rich with searing detail, the clarity is reminiscent of Tom Wolfe, let loose in the Alps, in search of hypocrisies and vanities."
"The Times’s global economics correspondent profiles five billionaires (along with workers and migrants across the world) to show how their exploitation of the pandemic has exacerbated inequality across the globe."
New York Times Book Review
Powerful. … Goodman’s reporting is biting and bitterly funny. … Davos Man shows us that today’s extreme wealth is inextricably linked to a great crime, perhaps the greatest one of this century: the hijacking of our democracy.
Impressively detailed. … Very readable, extensively reported. … A well-researched and lively explanation of how the global economy works, and the turning points that have enabled profiteering by the ultra-rich while undermining societal and democratic institutions.
A meticulously researched, clearly reported and truly infuriating history of the way the top 1% of the world has systematically arranged the way societies operate in order to become even richer, all to the detriment of the rest of us. … The book serves as a call to arms and an invitation to fight back against the continued unabashed pillaging of all economies by those who least need it.”
One of the great financial investigative journalists, Peter S. Goodman delivers a meticulously detailed account of how the billionaire class has hijacked the world’s economy, feasting on calamity, shirking taxes, all the while spouting bromides about compassionate capitalism. I so wish this tale of limitless greed and hypocrisy was a novel or a mini-series and not the truth about the world in which we live. Reader, prepare to be enraged.
“ Well-written and well-reported. … A passionate denunciation of the mega-rich.
Powerful. … Goodman’s reporting is biting and bitterly funny. … Davos Man shows us that today’s extreme wealth is inextricably linked to a great crime, perhaps the greatest one of this century: the hijacking of our democracy.
A meticulously researched, clearly reported and truly infuriating history of the way the top 1% of the world has systematically arranged the way societies operate in order to become even richer, all to the detriment of the rest of us. … The book serves as a call to arms and an invitation to fight back against the continued unabashed pillaging of all economies by those who least need it.”
Goodman is a skilled reporter whose stories of private affluence and public squalor are filled with detail and human interest.
Goodman is a skilled reporter whose stories of private affluence and public squalor are filled with detail and human interest.
"Unflinching and authoritative, Peter Goodman’s Davos Man will be read a hundred years from now as a warning, bellowed from the blessed side of the velvet rope, about a slow-motion scandal that spans the globe. Deliciously rich with searing detail, the clarity is reminiscent of Tom Wolfe, let loose in the Alps, in search of hypocrisies and vanities."
"A biting, uproarious yet vital and deadly serious account of the profound damage the billionaire class is inflicting on the world. Peter Goodman guides the reader through the hidden stories and twisted beliefs of some of the titans of finance and industry, who continually rationalize their bad behavior to themselves."
With a strong political bias, fiery Peter S. Goodman, NEW YORK TIMES global economics correspondent, argues that affluent people have deprived governments of resources needed to serve their people, especially in response to the Covid pandemic. Goodman profiles five international "Davos Men," billionaires, Jeff Bezos of Amazon being one of them. Earnest and appealing, narrator Michael David Axtell moderates the tirade with professional-sounding gravitas. Axtell applies a range of styles and succeeds at an intimidating task--bringing some levity and order to this indictment of the wealthy classes. The usually sleepy Swiss Alps ski resort of Davos is where these men meet at an annual economic forum. Those whose viewpoints are not strongly Left may not enjoy this listening experience. Wealth centralization is the underlying and overarching theme. W.A.G. 2023 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile
With a strong political bias, fiery Peter S. Goodman, NEW YORK TIMES global economics correspondent, argues that affluent people have deprived governments of resources needed to serve their people, especially in response to the Covid pandemic. Goodman profiles five international "Davos Men," billionaires, Jeff Bezos of Amazon being one of them. Earnest and appealing, narrator Michael David Axtell moderates the tirade with professional-sounding gravitas. Axtell applies a range of styles and succeeds at an intimidating task--bringing some levity and order to this indictment of the wealthy classes. The usually sleepy Swiss Alps ski resort of Davos is where these men meet at an annual economic forum. Those whose viewpoints are not strongly Left may not enjoy this listening experience. Wealth centralization is the underlying and overarching theme. W.A.G. 2023 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2023 - AudioFile
★ 2021-11-10
New York Times global economics correspondent Goodman mounts a scathing critique of the greed, narcissism, and hypocrisy that characterize those in “the stratosphere of the globe-trotting class,” many of whom gather at the annual World Economic Forum held in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos. Davos Man—an epithet coined by political scientist Samuel Huntington—is “an unusual predator whose power comes in part from his keen ability to adopt the guise of an ally.” The “relentless plunder” perpetrated by Davos Man, Goodman argues persuasively, “is the decisive force behind the rise of right-wing populist movements around the world,” leading to widening economic inequality, intense public anger, and dire threats to democracy. The author closely examines five individuals: private equity magnate Stephen Schwarzman; JPMorgan Chase executive Jamie Dimon; asset manager Larry Fink; Amazon’s Jeff Bezos; and Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff, who promotes himself as “the most empathetic corporate chieftain.” At the same time that these men broadcast their concern for social justice, they enrich themselves by manipulating economies, lobbying politicians, eviscerating regulations, weakening government oversight, and extracting huge tax benefits. Fink’s professed concern for the environment, for example, is really an alarm about risk to investments: “In a world under assault by rising seas and turbulent weather, how safe was real estate, and what were the implications for mortgage-backed securities?” During the mortgage crisis, Schwarzman’s company bought foreclosed properties, amassing a large inventory that it leased to desperate renters. With their yachts, multiple mansions, and private islands, they prove themselves “unmoored from the rest of human experience.” Reining in Davos Man, Goodman asserts, “can happen only through the exercise of democracy—by unleashing strategies centered on boosting wages and working opportunities, by erecting new forms of social insurance, by reviving and enforcing antitrust law, by modernizing the tax code to focus on wealth.”
An urgent, timely, and compelling message with nearly limitless implications.
