The World Bank logo in its beloved nebulous-blue colour As the White House asserted claims on picking Wolfowitz's successor, aid groups and former bank officials demanded the next president be selected, not in deference to the Bush administration, but on professional merits.
Of course, the World Bank is an interesting organization:
Created in 1945 to rebuild
The fact that they can produce $20 billion plus is in no small measure down to that financial whiz in the WW1 War Finance Corporation, Eugene Meyer, founder member of the CFR and first World Bank chairman, whose good work set the tone for the future.
After the war, his corporation turned to financing the reconstruction of devastated countries and this notion of financing reconstruction carried through to his appointments as chairman of the Federal Farm Loan Board in 1927 and chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from September 16, 1930 to May 10, 1933.
A quite vital time for the
This philanthropic altruism on the part of a huge financier carries on even today. For example, the EBRD, one of its partners with whom I have a small connection, is once again in the news for its ground-breaking policies:
As with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank, the EBRD’s mission is not to make profits but to boost development. However, the EBRD is unique among these institutions in the emphasis placed on making loans and investments on a commercial or near-commercial basis.
The shareholder governments of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will this month consider whether the highly profitable bank should become the first multilateral institution to pay dividends.
Jean Lemierre, the bank president, told the Financial Times: “It’s a major question for the shareholders. Even a philosophical question. I am quite sure we are among very few international financial organisations to be in this position.”
This is the question we are considering this weekend.
I read in an Ital paper the next president of it is going to be none other than Blair!!
ReplyDeleteThe problem I have with the whole World Bank fiasco isn't that Wolfowitz did something like give his girlfriend a raise...I expected nothing else from someone of his stature.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that those with the power to approve of the leader of the World Bank needed a "Lewinsky-type" affair to remove Wolfowitz.
He never should have been given the job in the first place! Which makes me quite pessimistic about the board's ability to choose the next successor.
Wolfowitz should have been turned down for the job on the merits of his neo-con plan for an imperialistic invasion of the Middle East - NOT because he helped his woman out.
Every man is guilty of trying to help out his woman...that's human nature.
...Now creating a half-assed fantasy plan for an invasion of an oil-producing state with little regard for human life - THAT should have disqualified him for the job in the first place.
Like the Republicans trying to oust Clinton in the 90s - why did they try to oust him for getting sexual favors in the Oval Office? Why not oust him for the foolish way he handled Somalia in 1992/93, or the way he stood by and refused to label Rwanda a genocide while almost 1 million people died? Those are legitimate reasons...
Welshcakes - interesting snippet indeed.
ReplyDeleteWil - you make a cogent case.