The Guardian World News January 27th, 2010
Speaking on the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Diamond said the growth in 'large, integrated, universal banks' had been a response to market forcesBarclays' president, Bob Diamond, warned today that Barack Obama's plans to limit the size of banks would hit jobs, growth and global trade.Speaking on the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Diamond said the growth in "large, integrated, universal banks" had been a response to market forces in the post-communist world."They [the big banks] fulfilled an important function in helping governments and corporates to transfer risk, particularly across borders," Diamond added."Did banks get big because they wanted to or were they following their clients, their customers and the markets? Was it for an economic...
| Strenghtening the International System -
FCO Bloggers: Global conversations
The need to strengthen the international system is clear. I 'm pleased that the World Economic Forum is discussing these issues at Davos. The FCO sponsored paper by the Brookings Institution on Risk and Resilience in the International System is an important contribution to the issue - and worth a... |
| How much should the best paid be paid? -
NightHawk
The chief executive of a company should be paid more than the average member of staff, right? But how much more? Twice? Five times? 10 times? 100 times?
When i was Head of Research at the Communication Workers Union, one of international colleagues was Philip Jennings, General Secretary of Union Network International (UNI). This week, Philip was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The union leader said that, in the 1970s, US chief executives were paid 30 or 40 times the wage of the average worker, but by 2008 they took home 319 times more than the average American.
He suggested that executive salaries should be capped at 20 times the pay of the average worker. If applied to Britain – where the average wage is just over £25,000 a year – the 20 to 1 rule would mean no... |
