Towards the end of January 2014, many of the world's business and political leaders, plus advisers, observers and other hangers-on joined the secular pilgrimage to Davos (70 km north of St Moritz and 150 km southeast of Zurich, Switzerland) for this year's World Economic Forum (WEF). According to most of the journalists who were there, the general mood this year was much more upbeat than at any time since January 2008. Of course, relatively few of the WEF attendees in January 2008 had foreseen the cataclysm that suddenly unfolded towards the end of that year, in the wake of the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy declared on 15 September. The collapse of Lehman Brothers precipitated widespread concern (not to say panic) about toxic debts and the frailty of major financial institutions.
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