Every January, Davos Man, that semi-mythical hominid whose natural habitat is the club lounges of major airports, migrates to his eponymous Swiss Alps resort for the World Economic Forum. There, he huddles in a warm cave of mutual congratulation. Last week, the usual avalanche of glib optimism came down from the town of Davos. But there were also clouds over the magic mountain, and even warnings of heavy weather.

John Kerry, portentous and vague to the end, speculated that Donald Trump’s presidency would last “a year, two years, whatever.” British prime minister Theresa May, hoping that the Trump administration will last long enough to grant a post-Brexit trade deal, pitched for business with a we-never-close desperation. Xi Jinping, the first Chinese leader to attend the forum, seemed to have prepared by reading The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann’s novel set in a Davos sanatorium. “Pursuing protectionism is like locking oneself in a dark room,” Xi said, issuing prescriptions to the world’s leaders as if they were tubercular invalids. “Wind and rain might be kept outside, but so are light and air.”