Another year passes and the powers that be meet in Davos. Lots of talk and as always, little result.

The New York Times tells us that the meeting showed the financial crisis had eroded trust. Few trust governments, corporations and particularly banks.

No kidding? They had to send a reporter to Davos to find that out? The Times let's us know that bankers, central bankers and politicians reached no consensus on the best way forward to regulate markets or banks. Which is a worry in light of the financial crisis.

All this coincides with the release of the Edelman Trust Barometer which found that trust is up modestly but that's only because it's being driven by more people trusting business and government in Brazil, India and China. The rest of the world is a different story. According to Edelman, trust in banks fell 39 points in the US from 68% to 29% and 20 points in Britain, from 41% to 21%.

That shows one thing: the situation is very fragile and business has a long way to go before it's trusted again. And it will take years before anyone starts trusting banks again.

As Paul Maidment writes in Forbes, the bankers are hoping for a return to business as usual. They're not going to get it. With the bailouts and government intervention, it's now a different world.