Each year in January, the World Economic Forum holds its annual conference in Davos, Switzerland. For three days, the über-elites of the business and political worlds—policy-makers and heads of state, private-equity chiefs, bank C.E.O.s, and hedge-fund managers—gather in the tiny alpine town to discuss the state of the world and the world’s millionaires and billionaires might address it. Historically, attendees have looked forward to the event, alternatively known as “Burning Man for billionaires” and “the money Oscars,” where they sit on panels by day, guzzle champagne and belt out show tunes by night, and maybe go home with a local afterward.

Unfortunately, this time around, a dark, populist cloud threatens to overshadow the proceedings, which begin next week. Did Davos’s emphasis on globalization unleash Brexit, Marine Le Pen, upheaval in Italy, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party, and, most chillingly, Donald Trump, on the world? As Bloomberg reports, the world’s elite are in an uncharacteristically pensive mood:

For the 3,000 people who will convene in the small Swiss town from Jan. 17 to 20, the 2017 event could be a moment of reckoning. At speakers’ podiums, coffee bars, and the ubiquitous late-night parties, they’ll be asking themselves whether Davos has become, at best, the world’s most expensive intellectual feedback loop—and, at worst, part of the problem. “Since the recession, the boom has benefited the upper-income earners and done little for those in the middle or on less. That’s the backlash,” says Nariman Behravesh, the chief economist for research provider IHS Markit. “The Davos vision of the world has not delivered a broad-based economic recovery.”

This year’s conference agenda makes clear the degree of anxiety. Sessions include a panel of psychology experts offering thoughts on “cultivating appropriate emotions in a time of nationalist populism.” Another, titled “Squeezed and Angry: How to Fix the Middle Class Crisis,” will star International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde alongside hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio.

The chill sweeping through the small Swiss town reflects a marked turn from late last year, when the World Economic Forum’s organizers were musing aloud about housing the event’s staff in refurbished shipping containers. “There has to be some humility,” one longtime attendee told Bloomberg. “For 30 years the elite have said, ‘We’re managing globalization, and we’re making it work for everyone.’ They cannot just keep repeating that.”