Funnily enough I was just reading, locust is apparently a reference to the evils of capitalism. From Bloomberg [1],

> Within hours of Heinrich Hiesinger stepping down as ThyssenKrupp AG chief executive last week amid pressure from activist investors, the talk turned to “locusts,” Germany’s catch-all term for the evils of Anglo-Saxon capitalism.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-07-10/hedge-fun...