The Great Reset

Conservative media commentator Glenn Beck presents an argument-driven examination of what he calls "the Great Reset," a proposal spearheaded by the World Economic Forum (WEF), a Swiss-based nonprofit, to restructure the global economy. Beck contends that this initiative amounts to a new form of authoritarianism he labels "twenty-first century fascism," one that uses corporate power, monetary policy, and technology rather than overt violence to centralize control in the hands of a global ruling class. He identifies President Joe Biden as an active participant in advancing the Reset's agenda in the United States.

Beck opens with a speculative scenario set in 2040 depicting what he argues would result from the Great Reset's full implementation. In this imagined future, a version of the Green New Deal, a sweeping climate-and-energy agenda, has eliminated millions of oil and gas jobs, tripled energy prices, restricted meat sales, and outlawed gasoline cars. A new federal agency enforces environmental, social, and governance (ESG) compliance standards that determine which businesses can access stock exchanges. Private ownership of most goods has been replaced by corporate rental services, credit scores incorporate social media activity, and China, India, and Russia have refused to adopt the reforms, becoming the world's dominant powers.

Turning to the present, Beck identifies WEF executive chairman Klaus Schwab as the central architect of the Great Reset. At a June 2020 virtual meeting, Schwab, Prince Charles, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, and other global figures formally launched the campaign. Beck quotes Schwab's call to "revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions" (20). He notes that prominent American political figures endorsed the plan: Former Vice President Al Gore called for a Great Reset on NBC's TODAY show, and John Kerry, later appointed Biden's climate envoy, stated at a WEF event that the Reset would happen "with greater speed and with greater intensity than a lot of people might imagine" (12). Beck defines the Great Reset as distinct from both traditional socialism and free market capitalism, drawing parallels to the Chinese economic model, which blends state control, corporate power, and technology.

Beck argues that the COVID-19 pandemic served as the crisis that made the Great Reset viable. Invoking former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's dictum about not letting a serious crisis go to waste, he chronicles lockdown measures he views as draconian, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's bans on travel between owned homes and threats by officials to permanently close churches. The economic devastation was severe: U.S. unemployment rose from 3.5 percent in February 2020 to 14.7 percent by April, and more than 40 million Americans filed for unemployment by May. Beck criticizes the federal relief programs that followed, arguing that stimulus checks were distributed based on income rather than need, that unemployment bonuses paying a median of 134 percent of workers' prior wages destroyed incentives to return to work, and that relief policies disproportionately benefited large corporations while devastating small businesses.

The pandemic also normalized massive government spending, Beck contends. The national debt grew by $3 trillion in the first six months of 2020 alone. He argues that this spending represents a de facto adoption of modern monetary theory (MMT), an economic framework holding that governments controlling their own currency can print as much money as needed, with inflation rather than deficits serving as the only constraint. He identifies Stephanie Kelton, a Stony Brook University professor and former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders who also served on Biden's 2020 Unity Task Force, as MMT's leading proponent. Beck warns that MMT combined with centralized digital currencies could give governments total control over economic behavior, allowing them to limit purchases of specific goods or effectively prohibit transactions without changing any laws.

Beck devotes significant attention to climate change, which he argues provides the long-term justification the Great Reset requires. While acknowledging that climate is changing, he contends that the evidence does not support catastrophic predictions. He cites data showing U.S. wildfires decreased from 2005 to 2019, that global cereal production is at record highs, and that 500 scientists sent a letter to the U.N. in 2019 declaring there is no climate emergency. He catalogues decades of failed environmental predictions, from the 1970s global cooling scare to climate scientist Jim Hansen's 1989 prediction that New York's West Side Highway would be underwater by 2019. Beck makes an extended case for nuclear power, arguing it produces four times less carbon dioxide than solar and requires far less land than wind, yet elites reject it because it does not demand the massive government spending and corporate involvement that wind and solar require.

The core of Beck's argument concerns the specific mechanisms of the Great Reset. He explains that "stakeholder capitalism," as promoted by Schwab, would require companies to prioritize social goals and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 2030 targets addressing poverty, inequality, human rights, and environmental sustainability, over profits and consumer demand. The primary enforcement tool is ESG metrics, a scoring system developed by WEF in collaboration with Bank of America and the four largest accounting firms. These metrics evaluate companies on environmental standards like greenhouse gas emissions, social standards like workforce demographics, and governance standards like board diversity. Beck argues that ESG standards would be imposed through both direct government regulation and monetary coercion through government spending tied to ESG compliance.

Beck documents how financial institutions are already adopting these frameworks. More than 190 banks representing 40 percent of global banking assets have signed the U.N. Principles for Responsible Banking. The three largest investment management firms, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Global Advisors, collectively cast about 25 percent of votes at S&P 500 companies, giving them power to push corporate adoption of ESG standards. BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink serves on WEF's board of directors. Beck notes that ESG scores are already being applied to individual Americans' retirement accounts without their knowledge.

Beck places the Biden administration within a historical framework, tracing a century-long progressive project from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal through what he calls the Great Reset's modern incarnation. He presents 11 exhibits linking Biden to the Reset, including Kerry's November 2020 statement at a WEF panel that the Reset under Biden "will happen...with greater speed and with greater intensity than a lot of people might imagine" (227-228), Biden's July 2020 call to "put an end to the era of shareholder capitalism" (223), his relationships with WEF board members, and his decision to model his 2017 Biden Institute after WEF. Policy actions cited include the creation of a Made in America Office directing federal purchases toward companies aligned with the administration's social and environmental goals, an executive order to conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands by 2030 mirroring WEF's identical target, the killing of Trump's Fair Access Rule that would have prohibited banks from discriminating against legal businesses, and congressional efforts to mandate ESG disclosure.

Beck concludes by proposing strategies for resistance. He invokes Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's essay "Live Not by Lies," urging personal refusal to participate in falsehoods. He calls for bipartisan coalitions, citing polling showing that 84 percent of voters prioritize profits, employee pay, or consumer value over climate change or social justice as business goals. His policy prescriptions include reinstating the Fair Access Rule, converting mandatory U.S. payments to the United Nations into voluntary contributions, pursuing a balanced budget amendment through an Article V convention of the states (the constitutional mechanism by which two-thirds of state legislatures can call a convention to propose amendments), expanding the House of Representatives to reduce special interest influence, and establishing universal education savings accounts. Beck closes by invoking Benjamin Franklin's warning that the nation is "a republic, if you can keep it" (274).