Writing in Kenya’s The Nation, Makau Mutua makes some compelling points. Slamming European hypocrisy, the writer calls for an end to Western control of the World Bank and IMF and a set of internal governance reforms that goes far beyond the leadership selection. Continue reading
Author Archives: Alex Wilks
Could it be Clinton (Bill)?
Many of you will remember that Bill Clinton got some backing in 2005 as a potentially clever bi-partisan World Bank president appointment. This time he has had less mention. But now the former US president is back in the frame. Courtesy of … The Canberra Times. Continue reading
How long will the nomination take?
Apparently we are still at first base when it comes to appointing a new World Bank president. Many people are keen for a quick resolution on this issue – not least many of us bloggers, the German government (which would hate to have the full G8 summit dominated by this same question), and Bank staff. It appears, though that we may have to wait some time. Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury Robert Kimmit told reporters at the G8 finance ministers meeting in Potsdam that his boss Henry Paulson “is not at this time talking names of people but how best to run the process to end up with the best person to run this important institution”.
Next World Bank president: ‘likely to be American’.
You could see it as stating the obvious. Or as helping to make it less likely that he’ll have to continue working with his rival and soon-to-be-former boss. Either way UK Chancellor Gordon Brown has briefed Reuters that the next World Bank is likely to be an American (i.e. not Tony Blair). Also ‘peppered’ with questions at the G8 finance minsters’ get-together was US Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt, one of the rumoured candidates. Continue reading
What qualifications needed?
Moisés Naím, editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine, served as Venezuela’s minister of trade and industry and as executive director of the World Bank in the early 1990s, and has has published a very thoughful opinion piece about the qualifications a WBG president should bring to the job. Posted yesterday in the Dallas News, presumably an outlet that is well-read in and near the White House.