The bankers play away
THE townsfolk of Prague have been urged to go and stay with their relations in the country. The international Monetary Fund and World Bank are coming to town. For two years in three, these institutions hold their meetings on their home ground in Washington, but in the third year they play away, and anything can happen. In Belgrade there were only three bathplugs, in Madrid fake dollar bills floated down on the head of the King of Spain, in Nairobi the tarts were locked up for the week but managed to find their way out. . . In Prague, demonstra- tions are promised, and some bankers and bureaucrats have been put off. Thirty years ago, when the away match was played in Copenhagen, there were riots, and a senior Swiss banker was hit on the head with a placard, wielded by a young woman who shouted 'Free love!' At my age', he told her, `I must expect to pay for it.' All the same, I am not surprised to learn that this year's away match is expected to be the last.
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