[Economist] WHAT will be the hot topic at the cocktail parties during the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Prague? Oil prices, the euro? Neither: the serious gossip will be about the pay of top policymakers and in how much luxury they travelled to the meeting. For this blame (or applaud) the IMF. In a new spirit of openness the Fund has for the first time published the salaries of its top executives in its annual report. Horst K�hler, the IMF�s managing director, earns a total package (including allowances) of $364,000. Oh, and that is tax-free. James Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank, earns slightly more. The IMF�s annual report also notes that there has been an increase in �excessive work-related stress�. Is this because all staff apart from Mr K�hler (who flew to Prague first class) now have to rough it in business class�along with Larry Summers, America�s treasury secretary? Mr Summers earns a more modest (and taxable) $157,000. Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Fed�and arguably the most important man in the financial world�earns only $141,000. Transparency is now supposedly the buzzword of all international organisations. Yet two of the institutions that we asked said at first that the salary of their bosses was confidential; only grudgingly did they divulge this information. League tables of pay need to be handled with care. For many of the bosses of international organisations, not only is their salary tax free, but they often get extra perks. For instance Donald Johnston, the secretary-general at the OECD, and the lowest paid (before, but not after tax) in our table, gets a Parisian apartment with a rental value of perhaps $50,000 a year. It is no coincidence that pay tends to be better at the World Bank, the IMF, and the Bank for International Settlements. None need have their annual spending plans approved by governments. This leaves rather more room for extravagance. _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
