Although the U.S. Congress has no formal role to play in the World Bank presidential nomination game, they are poised to appropriate annual funding for the World Bank’s IDA and consider an authorization for the next IDA replenishment. Most reported reactions on Zoellick’s nomination have been generally positive from both sides of the aisle. But key World Bank overseer and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank is not impressed: “The second, high-ranking George Bush administration foreign policy, national security official in a row, I think is a mistake.” Continue reading →

In a letter to the FT, Dr. Ngaire Woods, director of Oxford University’s Global Economic Governance programme, calls on Gordon Brown to “step up to the plate”. Continue reading →

One person who has doubts on the suitability of Zoellick is Nobel Prize winner and former Chief Economist of the WBG, Joseph Stiglitz. As told to La Republica and reported in The Times, Stiglitz asked the following: “Robert Zoellick defended American agricultural protectionism until the bitter end when he was responsible for commercial talks. How will he, as the future president of the World Bank, ask for the dismantling of aid to agriculture that favours developed countries at the expense of those that are poor?” Continue reading →

Sarah Anderson has a piece at Foreign Policy In Focus on Zoellick’s track record of pushing a trade as counter terrorism agenda. The best line: “But is a tone-deaf, name-calling steely opportunist a good choice to lead the World Bank?”

Yesterday Swedish finance minister Anders Borg answered a question from two MPs on the Swedish position on the selection process.  Continue reading →