The world’s rich & powerful meet every January to discuss ways, apparently, to alleviate the world’s manifold problems (or if you like conspiracies, to decide how to collectively direct the exploitation of the rest of the world). The Davos summit draws an eclectic mix of businessmen & politicians from around the world. If you ignored the mainstream media (controlled of course by those same rich folk), you may (or may not) be surprised to hear that, according to a recent Oxfam report, merely the increase in the wealth of the world’s top 100 wealthy people was enough to end the entire world’s poverty and still have 3/4ths left over. As the executive director of Oxfam notes, “We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many – too often the reverse is true.”