As soon as the June 15th deadline for alternative nominations for the World Bank presidency passed, Robert Zoellick, the presumptive nominee, let loose with an attack on Hugo Chavez and Venezuela. Is it a coincidence that Chavez is the Bush Administration’s favorite enemy of the moment? No prizes for guessing whose water Zoellick will be carrying at the World Bank.
The Editors at the Wall Street Journal continue to be the most reliable source of comic relief in this whole Wolfowitz-Zoellick episode. Today they’re warning of another World Bank “putsch” — their term for what happened to Wolfowitz — this time against Suzanne Rich Folsom from the Department of Institutional Integrity (INT). more…
Should Robert Zoellick indeed become president of the World Bank, he will be reunited with his old friend Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, in the elite club at the top of the global economic system. When Zoellick was U.S. Trade Representative, Lamy was his counterpart for the European Union. more…
Three finance ministers who have headed the G20 — the talking shop spearheaded by the Canadians, not the maverick grouping that formed at the WTO meeting in Cancun — issued statements on Sunday calling for an open, merit-based process to choose the next WB President. Guido Mantega of Brazil and Trevor Manuel of South Africa were joined by Peter Costello of Australia — which I believe makes Australia the first “Northern” (developed/industrialized/first world) country to publicly call for the U.S. to back off.
Very quiet, so far. Reuters reports that “Brazil, South Korea, China and Pakistan were among a group of developing nations that called for a more transparent process for selecting the head of the bank.” more…
This morning’s reports have the Wall Street Journal saying that Bill Frist, the former Senator from Tennessee, Senate Majority Leader, and healthcare tycoon, is “getting especially close scrutiny for the job” of World Bank president. more…
Columnist Charles Onyango-Obbo, writing in The EastAfrican, concludes that, at least for Africa, his scandal may have been his biggest reform success. more…
Newsweek’s humor columnist Andy Borowitz envisions another unilateral move by President Bush: naming Wolfowitz the head of al-Qaeda. more…
The Dutch executive director at the World Bank, who led the committee that completed the report on the Wolfowitz Fiasco, and the Dutch Development Minister, who has been one of the more outspoken officials calling for an open process to select the next WB president, spoke to the Dutch media, as reported in English in an article from South African Press Agency (SAPA). more…
A rush of wire service articles from the G8 Finance Ministers’ meeting in Potsdam, Germany confirms that, at least as far as these people are concerned, the U.S. gets to retain its control of the World Bank presidency. And the next nomination, according to Reuters, could happen soon — “early June” is spoken of as the target. more…
