Toby Howell

Volatility across U.S.

bonds, equities, and the dollar over the past month had sunk to the lowest level since 1990.

So literally, we were in a historic period of calm despite all the turbulence.

Now, maybe it looks like investors have woken up to the reality of what's going on.

And Trump's speech later today at Davos is definitely going to make headlines as well.

Moving on, one of the main features of the World Economic Forum here in Davos is that CEOs and business leaders get a lot of microphones shoved in their faces.

And what do you know?

They say the darndest things.

The soundbites started early yesterday when BlackRock CEO Larry Fink

pour into the conference itself, saying, for many people, this meeting feels out of step with the moment, elites in an age of populism, an established institution in an era of deep institutional distrust, and there's truth in that critique.

Fink's words carry weight.

Not only is he the leader of the largest asset manager in the world, but he also took over running the WEF last year after its longtime leader, Klaus Schwab, stepped down.

But Fink didn't stop there.

He also tore into the concept of capitalism itself, saying that despite more wealth being created since the fall of the Berlin Wall than at any other time in human history, quote, in advanced economies, that wealth has accrued to a far narrower share of people.

than in any healthy society can ultimately sustain.

Neil, one-two punch of going in on the conference he now runs for its billionaire navel-gazing, while also warning of the perils of unequal wealth distribution.

He's certainly rocking the boat.

And he also mentioned AI because he thinks it could be an inequality accelerator.

He's saying that, hey, these AI risks could actually repeat the same existing inequality patterns.

His direct quote, if AI does to white-collar workers what globalization did to blue-collar workers, we need to confront that today directly.