Andy Robinson

The meetings of the World Economic Forum in the tiny Swiss town that inspired Thomas Mann are proof of the endemic ills of the system that governs us—or at least of its contradictions. An agora where cynicism dresses up as philanthropy and single-minded thinking as open debate. A place where Bono and Clinton take on the role of prophets, star journalists forget their commitment to the public, and academics lecture audiences on the benefits of capitalism and the evils of interventionism before bankers and businessmen from all over the world.

Reporter Andy Robinson moves through the labyrinthine convention center, the bars of the ski resort, and the traffic jams of limousines to uncover how the elite—the richest 1%—secure their future at the expense of the average citizen, pushing for policies that further widen income inequality and fuel the growth of their own wealth.

A Reporter in the Magic Mountain traces the history of Davos, tax havens, and the farce of philanthropy, and with biting irony denounces how plutocrats push the world downhill while flaunting their opulence from the privileged Alpine resort.