Moneybox: Bank Job

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Moneybox Bank Job Jeffrey Sachs' rightly doomed campaign for the World Bank presidency. By Matthew Yglesias Posted Monday, Mar 12, 2012, at 07:23 PM ET Leadership of the World Bank is not a popularity contest and not normally subject to much public input. But Columbia University development economist Jeffrey Sachs is looking to change all that by campaigning very publicly for the job. There's almost no chance it will work. While the choice of who leads the bank is technically up to the diverse array of world governments who own shares in it, in practice, the president of the United States makes the selection himself, with automatic support from our key allies in Europe. The nod typically goes to a diplomatic or political figure friendly to the incumbent administration and looking for an honorable capstone to a career in public service. Since American voters don't much care about the World Bank, and the U.S. government's nominee is always selected, there's really no room for a public pressure campaign to make a difference. Still, any effort to shed light on an arrangement that's been frozen in amber since World War II could bring some benefits by opening the process up to a wider range of candidates. Sachs might seem like a reasonable candidate at first glance. After an early academic career that saw him get tenure in the Harvard economics department at the age of 29, Sachs became involved in providing economic advice to the government of Bolivia during its severe debt and inflation crisis in 1985. His cure, "shock therapy," was a combination of rapid trade liberalization, withdrawal of ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate The Real Reason Insurance Companies Won't Cover People With Pre-Existing Conditions Is Touch-Screen Voting Better or Worse for the Planet Than Paper Ballots? Kaplan: We Need To Get Out of Afghanistan—Now. Staying Will Only Make Things Worse.	Advertisement
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