Amid the economic gloom, at least one business is booming this year – conferences on the crisis of capitalism.

This week, a host of policymakers and economists – including four heads of state or government and three Nobel prize-winning economists – descended on Paris to debate how to stick the shattered world economy back together again. A flurry of similar meetings is taking place in advance of the Group of 20 summit in London in April, which aims to redesign global governance.