Banquets for bankers while economies fail

In spite of the financial chaos that has spread from Southeast Asia, the world's elite upper crust of bankers evidently feels no compulsion to share the Third World's sorrows.

On the contrary, last week they were treated well -- extravagant parties, tours of Washington, D.C., by limousine, and lavish banquets, all courtesy of the National Bank of Saudi Arabia.

With the grass national product (GNP) of Indonesia projected to recede by 15 percent this year, perhaps a bit more consideration should be shown for those on the receiving end of the International Monetary Fund's policies.

Especially since Saudi Arabia itself is on the brink of recession, thrift should supplant lavishness.

Leave the glitzy parties for the recovery. With people number in the hundreds of millions facing hunger, now is not the time to celebrate.