Angela Merkel was missing from Davos this year, but the German leader’s optimistic mantra “we can do this” echoed through the snowy resort in the Swiss Alps. Beneath the veneer of can-do optimism at the World Economic Forum, however, was a creeping concern that the politicians, diplomats and central bankers who flock each year to this gathering of the global elite are at the mercy of geopolitical and economic forces beyond their control.