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This week, the world’s elite flocked to Davos, Switzerland, to mark the World Economic Forum’s post-pandemic return. However, among the assembled billionaires, bankers, politicians, and business leaders
Philanthropists, there was a low-level grumble: Where are the Americans?
President Joe Biden, who oversees the world’s largest economy, was among those who were not present. Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were also absent. Nobody from the White House was sent to the summit.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and Trade Representative Katherine Tai were among those present. None of them gave keynote speeches.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen traveled to Zurich, just two hours by train from Davos, this week to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He before departing for a previously scheduled trip to Africa.
People in Davos have a tendency to exaggerate the significance of the gathering, and they may have been spoiled by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trumpobsession ,’s with the location. He went twice, more than any US president since Bill Clinton, who went once.
Biden has built his political brand on his empathy for the American working class, making it clear that Davos is not his style.
Nonetheless, US policy was central to discussions in the Swiss Alps, particularly the climate-and-tax measure signed into law by Biden in August, the Inflation Reduction Act. European governments, in particular, are outraged that the law favors North American electric-car manufacturing over the rest of the world.
One UK official in attendance, Business Secretary Grant Shapps, called the law “dangerous.”
Participants at Davos, like much of the financial world, wondered whether US politicians would really let their government default after Yellen announced Thursday that the Treasury would begin making unusual financial moves to avoid exceeding its legal borrowing limit.
Except for Larry Summers, the former Treasury Secretary and informal Biden adviser, no one from the administration was present to reassure them.
Senator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who helped negotiate the IRA, stepped into the void. He was approached by CEOs and foreign politicians eager to discuss the new US climate legislation. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte posed for photos with the senator, and foreign journalists rushed after him for interviews.
The enduring US moment from Davos this year may well be Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema high-fiving each other on stage on Tuesday over their mutual refusal to end the Senate filibuster in order to pass liberal priorities like voting rights expansion.
The two centrist senators were seen partying the night before at financier Anthony Scaramucci’s wine reception at the Hotel Europa.
