As I prepare to head off to Davos tonight, there are two main items on my agenda: (1) find time to get at least 30 minutes on the slopes; and (2) find an optimistic CEO. Last year, given the macroeconomic climate, the crush of activities and the demands of work, (1) was impossible and (2) was a lay-up. It's true that by January 2008, the U.S. financial sector had started to implode and troubles in the housing sector were spreading into the real economy. But the CEOs who showed up at Davos, who were mostly CEOs of multinational firms, were still very much looking on the bright side. The reason: the global growth story was still intact. I remember speaking with the CEO of Caterpillar, Jim Owens, who conceded that sales in the U.S. were soft but was pleased that global sales were booming. Economists and executives alike had bought into the "decoupling" theory -- the notion that the rest of the world could continue growing even if the U.S., the traditional engine of global growth, had gone into idle.

A year later, it's a much different story. It may still be difficult to get away for some schussing. But it may be very difficult to find an optimistic CEO. Caterpillar announced Monday that the deteriorating global economy was forcing it to scale back opeations and reduce employment by 20,000. And I notice that Ownes isn't listed in the preliminary list of Davos Participants.