Regulators it seems, have a sense of humour – here in Meeting Room E at the Federal Reserve a gentle chuckle ripples around the room for jokes that are as soft as the cushions that no-doubt ease Bernanke cheeks at the end of another long working day. I’d love to share what I’m doing here, and as one-day events go I’ve written up more notes here than for any recent event I can recall, but in all honesty *you* probably wouldn’t find it that interesting.

A fascination you might share however comes from being invited into a evolved and articuate community that lies well beyond the borders of one’s own, in an architectual setting that will have seen and heard things over the course of it’s history. Every community has its own vocabularly, dress-code and mannerisms and this feels like a home-coming of sorts, back to the days of working in the Square Mile. A positive experience.

I am, however sorely tempted to ask the sharply booted and suited gent from [redacted] to stop sending me pre-approved credit cards, your junk mail really isn’t effective at anything except adding another layer of hate for your brand, but I’m acutely aware of the disconnect between a single employee’s ability to affect an organisation compared to what we as ‘outsiders’ project they can do. And besides in this setting there are loftier ideals at stake.

Or are there? For all our macro-economic meanderings, practices around money rapidly become intensely personal, intensely social, or if we’re not careful, intensely impersonal and anti-social.

World Bank+ folks tomorrow, a dash to the airport then home.