The Untold Story behind that ‘Happy’ Future
CAST OF CHARACTERS Twenty-five to thirty middle-aged and elderly men; the usual suspects – robber barons and billionaires all. SCENE: A dark, impeccably-appointed smoking room in an exclusive resort in Davos. The well-compensated and appropriately discreet servers can smell the aromatic smoke of Cohibas and Montecristos as they wait on their not-so-discreet guests. The robber-billionaires, for their part, nose Vintage Port and Hors d’Age Cognac in Baccarat and Waterford crystal as they smoke said Cohibas and Montecristos. "So tell us Prof, what’s the bit you said you’d ‘omitted’?” “Hey, I’d heard that and I’d like to hear it again . . . ha-ha!” [Pause] “Now don’t get coy on us, Klaus.” “I’d said I had omitted the second part which would have been: ‘—and we’ll own multi-million-dollar estates, million-dollar superyachts, and priceless artwork . . . and we’ll be even more happy!’” [Gleeful laughter of a harsh and hideous kind; of an unsettling and diabolical kind.]