This time last year, a hot topic for debate was the looming presence of sovereign wealth funds. Most people had never heard of them until late 2007 when they started putting capital into banks that were looking wobbly. Wobbly banks loomed large too, mainly thanks to an announcement from Societe Generale on the Wednesday of the 2008 meeting that a rogue trader had cost it a lot of money. But there was no shortage of parties, and certainly no need to spend any money on feeding myself.
This year we will all be much more sombre. Banks that have received large quantities of taxpayers' money will not be able to justify spending it on lavish meals for assorted luminaries and journalists. I suspect we will all be eating much more humble fare, and may even have to pay for it ourselves.
The recession is affecting us all, and in many more ways than just limiting how many canapes I will be offered in Davos. People are losing their jobs, their homes and in some tragic cases, their lives. Writing a column that is supposed to entertain is challenging in the face of the biggest recession in our lifetime. Even if the economic problems are self-inflicted, the human toll that they will take this year and next will leave very little to smile about, in Davos or in Doncaster.