No one wants to admit to being a fat cat these days, except perhaps in the Club Med. In Spain and Italy there has been remarkably little public debate and outrage over excessive executive pay. This has not been the case elsewhere in Europe.

In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy has legislated to curtail payment for failure. The chief executive of Dexia, the Franco-Belgian financial group recently bailed out by the French and Belgian governments, was forced to forfeit his golden parachute. Germany, too, is proposing draconian measures to cap executive pay, even suggesting the annual salary of top bankers should be limited to €500,000 ($650,000). The issue is being debated in the Netherlands and the UK and even in Switzerland.