Mission implausible

EVEN by the standards of international finance, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa is a jet-setter. An economist by training, Mr Padoa-Schioppa has climbed almost to the top of Italy's central bank, managed the European Commission's economics and financial affairs division and chaired a prestigious international committee of bank regulators. So why, on February 28th, did he agree to become head of CONSOB, Italy's sleepy securities commission? Perhaps because he figures that cleaning up corporate behaviour will soon be where the action is.