FINK ON THE THRONE: GLOBAL FINANCE CROWNS ITSELF AT DAVOS

Founder Schwab steps down amid minor accusations and internal discontent. In his place, BlackRock's Larry Fink and big pharma's Hoffmann. The message is unmistakable: there's no need to conquer nations, just buy their brain. And Bitcoin? From rebel to luxury product.

The news could have been passed off as a formal handover, one of those guard changes the powerful love to shroud in normality. Instead, it has the bitter taste of a declaration of war. Larry Fink, CEO of the BlackRock behemoth, and André Hoffmann, vice-chair of pharmaceutical giant Roche, are the new co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos. They replace Klaus Schwab, the 87-year-old founder forced out after an internal investigation that, while clearing him of major wrongdoing, uncovered a series of administrative irregularities and complaints about the work environment. An inglorious exit for the man who for decades set the global agenda.

But the real earthquake is not Schwab's departure, which was long anticipated. It is the nature of his successors. BlackRock is not a simple investment firm: it is a financial Leviathan that moves unimaginable capital, holds stakes in half the world's economy, and, through shareholder votes, influences the policies of entire industrial sectors. Putting its boss in charge of the most important think tank of global capitalism is like appointing the fox as guardian of the henhouse. Or rather, as owner of the entire farm.

The Fink-Hoffmann duo also outlines a new geopolitics: no longer just American dominance, but a transatlantic condominium uniting Wall Street finance with European industrial and pharmaceutical power. It is technocracy becoming a shadow government. While Trump tries to dismantle the multilateral system piece by piece with the rage of a populist and China advances with the patience of a Go player, they—the real owners—sit where it is decided what tomorrow will be.

And what will it be? BlackRock has already made its vision clear: pro-risk, overweight on US equities, a big bet on artificial intelligence. Fink is also the high priest of sustainable finance, an oxymoron that always plays well in Davos. With him in charge, the Forum will no longer be a place for debate on great challenges, but the strategy office of those who monetize those challenges.

And in all this, Bitcoin? The cryptocurrency born to challenge the system, to offer refuge from central bank surveillance and the arbitrariness of high finance, now trades at stratospheric values. Some shout triumph and bet on new records. But it's a dangerous illusion. Because BlackRock doesn't fight what it can't control: it digests it, packages it, and sells it as an ETF. Larry Fink has no need to stop Bitcoin: he can buy it, put it in a fund, and resell it to the very people who thought they were subverting the established order.

The paradox is bitter and magnificent at once: the symbol of libertarian rebellion becomes an asset in the portfolio of the world's largest asset manager. The very institution accused by many of wanting to rule the world is now led by the man who holds the keys to the global vault. Revolution is no longer made in the streets: it is traded on the Stock Exchange. And the sovereigntists, the populists, the rebels of all kinds have become customers of those they wanted to destroy.

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🦅 Cheyenne Isa ₿ 🦅