“Paint It Black”: Gloom was the official on-stage state of mind at this year’s Davos. The toxic combination of the euro crisis and the ubiquity of longtime Cassandras such as George Soros, Martin Wolf of the Financial Times and Nouriel “Dr Doom” Roubini was more than enough to give anyone a 19th nervous breakdown. In private conversations, however, there was a bit more optimism, though no one was getting carried away. Cautious encouragement was taken from better recent economic news in America and, above all, a shift towards activism by the European Central Bank, which was seen by many as greatly reducing the risk of a catastrophic failure in the banking system.