More networking than nous. The Times of London gives a run-down of the candidates for World Bank president who it believes can restore the intellectual rigour squandered by James Wolfensohn's habit of pandering to "every single-issue protest group in sight."

While Jim Leach is a "dullard" and Carly Fiorina a "showy" lightweight, Wolfowitz is "brilliant and still the favourite," and John Taylor - praised for opposing the International Finance Facility - and Kenneth Rogoff would offer solid management. more...

David Steven ~ March 04, 2005

Browned off. John Taylor is not the only one courting unpopularity, "pushy aggressive" Gordon Brown has been making enemies too...

David Steven ~ February 21, 2005

Like Liechtenstein. "By treating the [World Bank presidency] as if it's an ambassadorship to Liechtenstein," the New York Times writes, "we fail to consider the most highly qualified candidates and too easily fall into the trap of using the bank as a tool of American policy."

As examples of non-US nationals who are well qualified for the job, it mentions Gordon Brown, Trevor Manuel and Kemal Dervis (names you read here first), while adding Ernesto Zedillo, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and Leszek Balcerowicz to the pot. more...

David Steven ~ February 20, 2005

Taylor snubs Brown. In what may his last hurrah at the US Treasury, leading World Bank presidential contender John Taylor has poured cold water on the UK's poposals for an International Finance Facility for developing countries.

In London for the G7 finance ministers summit (his boss pulled out with a cold), this is not a move likely to enhance Taylor's shakey international appeal - unless he thinks that scotching Gordon Brown's plan is the best way to butter-up Tony Blair...

David Steven ~ February 04, 2005

It's got to be Gordon - TIME. "There's one job - a vitally important one - for which the British Chancellor is the person best qualified in the world" comments TIME Europe today. It praises Brown's management of the British economy and suggests he could serve as president of the World Bank for ten years - remaining "a figure on the world stage when Blair had long retired to the board of the Carlyle Group and a spread in Gascony". more...

Alex Wilks ~ January 16, 2005

A way out. Yesterday, we reported Adrian Hewitt's speculation that Gordon Brown might fancy the World Bank job.

The Guardian's Michael White has picked up this gossip too, wondering whether "Brown, an admired chancellor, could offer himself for Wolfensohn's World Bank job (he has threatened to go to the IMF in the past) or go to the backbenches." more...

David Steven ~ January 13, 2005

Don't neglect Gordon Brown. ODI's Adrian Hewitt gets in touch to warn us not to swallow the conventional wisdom that only an American can get the job.

His tip? British Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who is perhaps better liked in Washington than he is by his neighbour in Downing Street. more...

David Steven ~ January 12, 2005

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