The contrast was stark – and telling. En route back to Canada following a trip to South Sudan, our team was on a layover at Frankfurt. Eager for news – any news – I purchased a Time magazine, poring over its pages to see if anything significant had transpired while we were disconnected from the broader world.And there they were, two adjacent stories which together spelled out so much of what is going wrong and right with the modern world. Molly Ball's compelling narrative concerning President Trump's visit to Davos for the annual Global Economic Forum revealed just how much has changed in the past year. Most present had grown more at ease regarding Trump's influence. One year ago, they were collectively on edge, recalling how Trump had, in search of an angry base, spoken out against global elites who had run away with the money and any hope for a better democracy. Steve Bannon had gone so far as to say that the attendees at Davos were Trump's enemies: The Davos crowd had turned their collective backs on humanity's promise and it was in the new president's interest to fan that flame and bring them to heel. Naturally, the wealthy were nervous.They really didn't need to be, for when Trump arrived at the famous resort he fit in easily with their collective agenda – “a neat symbol of his ingestion by the globalist class,” as Ball succinctly put it. The populism he had previously engendered might have been an ominous threat had it gathered storm-like momentum. But for that to happen, something more than injecting a new president into office was required; a global uprising had to be compelled against those well-connected plutocrats and corporations he claimed were responsible for lost jobs, lost homes, lost opportunity and lost hope.Yet here he was at Davos, glad handing, backslapping, and talking deals with the very people and groups he had once threatened to exile. In reality they had won; the swamp had swallowed Trump and they smugly confirmed that he could be helpful to their designs. The past twelve months had been prosperous for them and the world's economy was responding to their every pull of the financial lever.In its own way, the president's previous call to rise up against the global deal-makers had some merit. As Ball reminded her readers, the term “Davos Man,” originally coined by political scientist Samuel Huntington in an article titled “Dead Souls,” had strong negative connotations in a manner that pitted the exclusive club against the rest of the world. When candidate Trump lit into them during his eighteen-month election campaign, he instinctively connected to the global angst that was behind the anger of disenfranchised citizens. Such venting was real and served as a threat to those manipulating the world financial order. To witness the great populist fraternizing with those very elites must have aroused a kind of confusion amongst those who believed him to be their champion.The anti-Davos forces have a strong case. It was discovered only a year ago, at the same gathering, that 62 of their peers had accumulated as much wealth ($1.76 trillion) as half of the world's population. Repeatedly during the proceedings it was highlighted that financial inequality had become great enough to threaten the very future of humanity itself. For over a decade the Davos Man has overseen an economic system that created phenomenal amounts of wealth, but only for those who could take advantage of it.Surely none of this is occurring by accident. The rash of trade deals in the last three decades, and the disassociation between capital and the welfare of human beings, have coincided with the growth of poverty in affluent nations, the lowering of labour standards, a threatening toll on the environment, and a burgeoning disillusionment with government and democracy. Surely it's clear that these activities are related and that most of those who gather in Davos, while offering concern regarding things like refugees or gender challenges, won't change the current economic order in order to effectively address our greatest challenges.The Davos crowd boasts of the reduction of those in extreme poverty whose numbers have decreased by the hundreds of millions over the last few years. But such improvement is slight – climbing from living on one dollar a day to slightly over two dollars. The great challenges are still there and what the global elites have still to consider is that they are not only the byproduct of a global financial order running amok, they are partially the cause of it.The sight of Donald Trump being embraced by his collective Davos counterparts is a clear signal that America has little intention of righting the imbalance of the international financial order. Trade deals are great. Elevated talk is encouraging. But until true social and economic justice weave their powerful influence through the world's economic systems, Davos Man will remain chained to its “soulless”reputation. Humanity deserves better.Glen Pearson was a career professional firefighter and is a former Member of Parliament from southwestern Ontario.  He and his wife adopted three children from South Sudan and reside in London, Ontario.  He has been the co-director of the London Food Bank for 29 years.  He writes regularly for the London Free Press and also shares his views on a blog entitled “The Parallel Parliament“.   Follow him on twitter @GlenPearson.