The World Economic Forum has ended with a call to rebuild the global economic system.
Founder Klaus Schwab announced a "global redesign initiative" to reform banking, regulation and corporate governance.
For five days, more than 2,000 business and political leaders discussed what some here called the "crisis of capitalism".
However, most discussions described the problems, not solutions.
The forum's official theme this year had been "shaping the post-crisis world", but that turned out to be premature.
Rather, the debates proved the widespread uncertainty amongst both politicians and corporate bosses, as they tried to gauge the depth of the economic crisis and explore ways how to get out of it.
Nobody in Davos tried to refute the prediction that the global economy is heading into a deep and long recession.
One top money market manager said: "If you believe that the world economy will turn the corner at the end of this year, or in [the first quarter] of 2010, I tell you we have not turned the corner, we can't see the corner, we don't even know where the corner is."
Another participant summed up the state of the discussion as "we don't know what to do, only that we need to do something and we need to do it fast".
With the old certainties of the free market gone, even free marketeers accepted the need for more regulation, quick.
Professor Schwab said the current situation was a perfect example of where banks could take the lead and devise a system of self-regulation, and not wait for governments to regulate it.
It may be too late for that, though, with politicians from Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for a global regulator to ensure a smoother running of the international financial system.
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