This is the week of the annual Davos jamboree, the four-day flagship conference of the World Economic Forum (WEF) being held now at a ski resort in the Swiss Alps, where some 3,000 masters of the universe gather to discuss the future of the world.

They include heads of government, ministers, international civil servants, chief executive officers, celebrated bankers, technology entrepreneurs and an assortment of oligarchs and billionaires. Business luminaries aside, there are also heads of charities and the occasional Nobel laureate, as well as famous writers, musicians, actors and, of course, legions of journalists.