Card wants Snow. Libération says at least ten minutes of every Washington dinner party are spent guessing who will be the next World Bank president. It reminds correspondent Pascal Riche of a game described by 19th century French author Guy de Maupassant where people used to work out who would replace deceased academics. "Everyone makes their list. People challenge, discuss, calculate. There is nothing more fun, nothing, absolutely nothing."

On Riche's current list are: Fiorina, McPherson, Tobias and Snow. He suggests that Treasury Secretary Snow may be picked because Andrew Card - White House Chief of Staff and thus in charge of the Bank president selection process - wants Snow's job. more...

Alex Wilks ~ March 11, 2005

London Times backs Bono. The Times is not keen on Taylor or Tobias (insufficient stature) or Fiorina (the job would be a reward for failure).

Perhaps surprisingly, the paper joins the Bono bandwagon: "Bono has international credibility, a keen understanding of development issues and, through his mega-earnings with U2, a handle on money."

David Steven ~ March 02, 2005

Wolfowitz touted. The FT drops a bombshell this morning - Paul Wolfowitz is now a leading candidate for World Bank president.

Wolfowitz would be a hugely controversial choice, with a Bush official admitting his appointment would have "enormous repercussions within the development community."

Tobias, Taylor and McPherson are also said to be on the shortlist, though the latter two are apparently no longer leading candidates...

David Steven ~ March 01, 2005

Insider speaks out. "An open process with a search panel should be the approach for all multilateral institutions," says Peter Woicke, outgoing executive vice president of the World Bank's private lending arm, the International Finance Corporation.

"The institutions suffer as a result of the way they pick their leadership," he argues. more...

David Steven ~ February 03, 2005

Outside the box. In an editorial, the Washington Post dismisses the claims of all leading candidates for presidency of the "powerful but fragile" World Bank - bar Colin Powell, who may not be willing to take the job on.

"If Mr. Powell is not interested, the Bush administration should think outside the box," it says, without giving us any help as to what "out of the box" might mean in this context. more...

David Steven ~ January 23, 2005

Who runs the world? We get a nice plug from Noura Boustany in the Washington Post (scroll for it, free subs), who reckons that Randall Tobias is the only "major remaining candidate" for president, with Colin Powell and Christine Todd Whitman out of the running.

Apparently, James Wolfensohn and John Snow, US Treasury Secretary, had lunch yesterday to discuss sucessors.

David Steven ~ January 19, 2005

The Washington Post floats a selection of candidates for the Bank job: Robert Zoellick, the U.S. Trade Representative; John Taylor, the undersecretary of the treasury for international affairs; Randall Tobias, the US's global AIDS coordinator; Christine Todd Whitman, the former director of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Carla Hills, who was the elder Bush's trade rep.

David Steven ~ January 03, 2005

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