•/ Greedy guzzlers: There’s something awry at this Bretton Woods conference — look hard and you’ll spot it. Yes, it’s the incongruity of listening to panellists, from finance ministers to investment bankers, applaud one another for their climate-warrior chops and ability to issue spanking new green bonds, only to load into giant black SUVs and make the one-kilometre drive back to their air conditioned hotel rooms and evening soirées. Practice what you preach, people.
•/ Drink and be merry: Anyone fearing for our future as a species after listening to one of the IMF/World Bank doomsday-scenario panels could simply pop along to the café on the ground flood in the convention centre, where waiters are happy to urge you in the direction of a nice tasty-fresh Bintang beer at eight in the morning. That’s certainly something you don’t get in the District of Columbia.
•/ Kitchen confidential: Out of the Woods was intrigued to spot Andrew Bailey, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England and now head of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, trying to sneak out through the kitchens, despite the best efforts of abundant Indonesian door-handlers to dissuade him. With the UK about to strike out on its own after Brexit, we are left to wonder what he’s cooking up.
•/ Batik bros: Yes, those lovely, lively Indonesian print shirts are all the rage, spreading like a virus through this year’s Annual Meetings, as ever more participants swap sweaty suits for the bright, tangy Indonesian dress. World Bank president Jim Yong Kim donned a fetching red number when he presented his new fintech agenda on Thursday. Yet to get with the programme: Bank of England governor Mark ‘Dawdler’ Carney and a certain Ms Christine ‘Laggard’ Lagarde.
•/ Stimulus sustenance: Taking to the stage yesterday, the host of this year’s conference, Indonesian president Joko Widodo, chose to ignore the naysayers and naybobs and focus on improving our happiness index. Highlights from his keynote speech included this ripper of a number: ‘Spend some of your tourism dollars to try to find out what makes Indonesian people happy.’ Out of the Woods followed his lead, and took his team out for an expensive slap-up Japanese meal.
•/ I’m only sleeping: Did the room move for you (II). When OOTW squeezed into the conference hall yesterday morning, he expected everyone to be talking about the previous night’s mild but moving seismic temblor. But reaction was mixed. Plenty of delegates were shaken from their hotel beds but others didn’t feel anything at all. Paraguay’s central bank chief José Cantero was sleeping so tight after his 30-hour trip to Bali that he did not even notice Thursday morning’s earthquake.