Usually the Davos crowd herds together on markets and the economy at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. The “Davos consensus” can be a useful contrarian indicator since it is often entirely wrong. But there isn’t a consensus this year, which helps explain the jumbled state of markets.

The S&P 500 is almost in a bear market. Yet there’s no agreement on whether recession is on the way. The problem as many executives describe it: Current business is great, but the difficulties ahead are obvious.