Last week I pointed out that the UK government has announced that it is to let market forces determine the future of executive pay packages but that the EU is considering further investigation into whether it feels that legislation in this area is needed. From the USA now comes this, hauntingly familiar, headline: Will the Government Legislate Executive Pay? Apparently, William McDonough, the chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board warned that the US government could intervene to control executive compensation if company managers do not. Meanwhile in Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph there was the story about the CEO of Bradford and Bingley who is about to move to take charge of Visa International, the credit card company. The DT quoted B&B chairman Rod Kent as saying “This answers the doubting Thomases in the fat cat debate who do not believe there is an international executive pay market. McDonough told a meeting of the Economic Club of Chicago it would be good riddance if a chief executive quit because his or her pay was being cut. I would turn to the directors and point out that there are lots of fine people in America, many of them in this room, who would be happy to be CEOs at more rational levels of income, said McDonough, according to the report. More food for thought! DW