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00:00In other news, U.S. President Donald Trump is due to virtually address the World Economic Forum in
00:04Davos. The speech comes days after he resumed office for the second time. It also comes on
00:09the heels of NGO Oxfam, warning of an aristocratic oligarchy emerging. For more on this story,
00:15we can bring in Rebecca Riddell, Economic Justice Policy Lead at Oxfam America. Thank you so much
00:20for joining us on the program today. Now, the newly installed U.S. President will be addressing
00:25the global elite, the global elite he balks at. But Donald Trump is part of this elite, isn't he?
00:33First of all, thank you so much for having me. It's a real pleasure. And yes,
00:37so President Trump's decision to dial into Davos today is a clear signal of what seems to be his
00:43main presidential priority, which is pandering to fellow billionaires.
00:46Now, fellow billionaires were firmly in the shot when Donald Trump was being sworn in.
00:55What does this mean about his second term in office?
00:59Well, Oxfam and organizations like us and the people we work with certainly expect and are
01:06preparing for President Trump to be a president of and for billionaires and for his administration to
01:13potentially fan the flames of inequality in the U.S., but also globally.
01:17You know, his team is set to be the richest ever to run the U.S. government, a cabinet worth,
01:24the richest cabinet in history and a team overall worth over $450 billion.
01:29Now, the wealth of billionaires, according to Oxfam, grew three times faster last year. Why
01:35do you think that there is this reluctance on the part of governments to level the playing field?
01:41Hmm. Well, yeah, that's a great question. I want to step back and say, you know, every year,
01:48Oxfam puts out a global inequality report as the sort of private jets are descending onto Davos.
01:55And this year, we found that the billionaires have a lot to celebrate, even compared to recent
02:01years. You know, their wealth has increased tremendously, this less than $3 trillion.
02:07At less than 3,000 people, their wealth went up by $2 trillion. Right. That's unimaginable.
02:14Last year, we had predicted that there would be the world's first trillionaire within a decade.
02:20Now, our expectation is there will be five trillionaires within that time frame. And
02:24that's just because of how fast billionaire wealth is increasing. And you asked about
02:29why steps aren't being taken to address this type of extreme inequality. Right.
02:36And I think, you know, we have to think about how the very richest folks,
02:39they're not just getting more wealth, they're also getting more power. And nothing really
02:44exemplifies that better than seeing a billionaire, Donald Trump, backed by the world's richest man,
02:51sworn in as president of the US. Right. This is oligarchy in action. We're so concerned about
02:55the ability of the ultra wealthy to really shape political decision making in their favor. So
03:01I think that's a key factor behind this. We had the outgoing US President Joe Biden
03:08warn of an oligarchy taking hold in the United States. He was president for four years. What
03:14did he do to combat this? Yeah, I have to say, it's a strange moment when the President of the
03:22US is even talking about oligarchy and the risks of that. Something we and others have been warning
03:29about for a while. But a few years ago, you know, you might have thought about a James Bond villain
03:35or a rogue state. And now it feels like we don't have to use our imagination anymore to think about
03:39oligarchy. We can just look at the newspaper. And, you know, the reality is, these are decades,
03:47and in some cases, as we talk about in the report, centuries of really wrongheaded policy decisions,
03:54and often a bipartisan embrace of a very pro capital type of policymaking. And so while the
04:01Biden administration did take steps in response to pressure from workers and families, of course,
04:08these are problems that haven't yet been resolved and are going to take a lot of political will to
04:13tackle. Does the global political context, you know, change the stakes of the meeting underway
04:19in Davos this year? I think it's a good question. It's when we get asked a lot, you know,
04:29what's going to happen at Davos. And I think if nothing else, it's an opportunity for dialogue.
04:35And that's what we hope is happening with so many billionaires, world leaders, politicians
04:40coming together. It's a really important time to talk about these problems. In a way, the need to
04:46tackle extreme wealth and the risks of not doing so have never been more clear. And so we certainly
04:52think that should be front and center at Davos this year. Rebecca, we're going to have to leave
04:57it there. Thank you so much for joining us on the program today. That was Rebecca Goodell
05:01from Oxfam America.