The Future Investment Initiative or "Davos in the Desert" met this past week in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman heads the country's sovereign wealth fund, essentially the power behind the event. The seventh version's theme was "A New Compass." A graphic showed a compass with two dials going in opposite directions.
America's policy making billionaires turned out in droves, even with the Israel-Hamas war raging. Many stayed away after the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khoshoggi. The Carlyle Group's David Rubenstein served as a panel moderator.
J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon, BlackRock's Larry Fink and Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman served on that panel.
Schwarzman took a shot at people working from home. He wants people back in the office to prop up Blackstone's commercial real estate holdings.
The greed and leverage boys turned out for the Crown Prince's signature event. How will what was discussed in Riyadh turn into U.S. government policy? Stay tuned.
MBS and the PEU boys get their way while everyone else gets a different form of MBS, mighty bowel syndrome. How much pressure can the little people stand?
Update 10-29-23: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will meet with Saudi officials tomorrow on the Israel-Hamas war.
CNBC ran this story just after the gang was in Saudi Arabia for the MBS Investfest:
Update 10-30-23: Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, the brother of Crown Prince Mohanned bin Salman is in Washington, D.C. to meet with White House officials on the Israel-Hamas war. KBS will meet with Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, both former PEUs with Pine Island Capital.
Update 10-31-23: A theme of FII7 was how the people in attendance are some of the smartest people on the planet. They're needed elsewhere to solve an intractable conflict, not far from Riyadh.
World Champion boxier Tyson Fury is the latest sports celebrity to endorse Saudi Arabia. His next two fights will be there and Fury will get a whopping £160m for his efforts.
Update 11-2-23: The scientist who warned about global warming in the 1980's expressed:
“a sense of disappointment that we scientists did not communicate more clearly and that we did not elect leaders capable of a more intelligent response”.
The 80's birthed a number of private equity underwriters (PEU), now referenced as the intelligent people who are going to solve our problems and the people who influence government policy (much more than scientists). In the U.S. politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly more are one.
