Sex workers take Switzerland! As the World Economic Forum gets underway in Davos, it’s not just politicians and business leaders flying in for a few days: droves of prostitutes are said to be heading into the Alpine resort town. Cockburn can’t pretend to be surprised: what more do we expect from the 1 percent?
One visiting escort told German tabloid Bild that she’s charging $700 per hour or $2,500 per night. She also said she preferred the visiting Americans and Brits as bedfellows: “Unfortunately, Germans are stingy when it comes to tips.”
Customer details, given their high profiles, are typically hush-hush — politicians could get in big trouble back home if their excursions became public. Cockburn hears that some past attendees haven’t been shy about their paid companions — although with Russians less welcome this year, that isn’t likely to be as much of a problem.
Often the focus of protests, the yearly conference addresses many of the major issues in the global economy relevant at the time. How much gets done, though, is questionable, not least because the attendees might have… something else on their minds.
Another German escort, Salomé Balthus, tweeted how working during the WEF meant “looking at the gun muzzles of security guards in the hotel corridor at 2 a.m. — and then sharing the giveaway chocolates from the restaurant and gossip about the rich with them.” She also poured cold water on the notion that Davos attendees were uniquely deviant. She told Swiss tabloid 20 Minuten, “The idea that ‘the powerful’ become wild sex monsters in Davos is probably nonsense.”
In any case, the WEF creates a flourishing economy of its own every year, if not a very conventional one. Cockburn, you will be stunned to hear, has never been invited: clearly the World Economic Forum’s guestlist is in need of a Great Reset…