[Apologies in advance for the shameless self promotion.] The Scripps Howard News Service has picked up an op-ed I wrote with editorial help from the good folks at Foreign Policy In Focus. Continue reading →

This UPI article quotes Whitehouse spokesperson Tony Snow as indicating that “the President is close to choosing Wolfowitz’s replacement”, as soon as later this week. Combined with other recent posts, it seems reasonible to conclude that Zoellick will be put forward as the one and only candidate.

Responding to a freedom of information request, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s ‘Engaging with the Islamic World Group’ has confirmed British support for the Foundation which employed (?) Shaha Riza during her time away from the Bank. Continue reading →

Returning home from the recent African Development Bank meeting in Shanghai, economist Jeffrey Sachs comments on all that “is wrong with the World Bank, even aside from Wolfowitz’s failed leadership”. Unlike the Chinese, says Sachs, “the Bank has too often forgotten the most basic lessons of development, preferring to lecture the poor and force them to privatize basic infrastructure, rather than to help the poor to invest in infrastructure and other crucial sectors”.

According to the Financial Times, Zoellick is leading the pack of contenders for the position of President of the World Bank.

Senior US administration officials expect a decision on the successor to Paul Wolfowitz, who steps down as bank president on June 30 following an ethics scandal, to be announced this week in Washington.” Continue reading →