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In April this year, when we were in Washington for the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, I read of the death of an ordinary American - he may have been a postal worker or employee of an express delivery service - who left a fortune of US$8 million in stocks and bonds, that he had accumulated over a lifetime of careful investing. Ever so often we hear similar stories of persons of modest means who live lives of relative penury, and are able to accumulate surprising wealth. While we may all admire their fortitude, most of us would, in similar circumstances, choose to spend some of those gains to enrich our own lives, rather than accumulate wealth for its own sake.