"Desperation" in Bank process. A Washington Post columnist has savaged the US approach to choosing a new World Bank president. Sebastian Mallaby, author of a recent book on the Bank, fears that 2005 may be as bad as 1986. This was "a low point in American economic diplomacy" when development novice Barber Conable was shoe-horned into the institution against his will and to the detriment of the Bank.

Mallaby comments that the rumours about Paul Wolfowitz and Carly Fiorina "look like a sign of desperation" and outlines why they should not do the job.

He suggests that Wolfowitz has most of what it takes to lead the World Bank. He is a good communicator, has experience in public-sector management; and he knows something about developing countries. "But his association with the Iraq war makes him, unfairly but undeniably, anathema to most World Bank shareholders".

Mallaby has asked a range of pro-Bush economists what they think of Fiorina's candidacy. They were apparently unanimous that: "the idea is preposterous. Fiorina was fired from the top job at Hewlett-Packard because she proved incapable of running a large organization. How could the Bush administration, which claims to respect the judgments of the marketplace, entrust her with the formidable challenge of running the bank's 10,000-strong bureaucracy?"

Mallaby finishes with a vivid metaphor: "naming a failed technology executive to run the world's premier development organization is like hiring a failed soccer player to coach the Redskins".

Alex Wilks ~ March 07, 2005

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