It looks like the French riposte to Google Print may be gaining momentum.
Brad Setser has a typically thoughtful post on the Wolfowitz appointment. It’s too thorough and good to summarise, so just go over there and read it.
It looks like the French riposte to Google Print may be gaining momentum.
Brad Setser has a typically thoughtful post on the Wolfowitz appointment. It’s too thorough and good to summarise, so just go over there and read it.
Hi, Lance.
It strikes me that Wolfowitz has two attributes which make him an ideal Bush administration candidate for the World Bank job (one of which applies to Bolton at the UN as well).
First is that the Bush administration believe the fatal flaw of international institutions such as the UN and World Bank is the unwillingness of those institutions to serve as instruments of US foreign policy. I’ll venture a guess that if Anan resigns before the Bush term is out, the administration will nominate Bolton or another administration factotum to take his place. I believe they’re mistaken in these instances, but I think the administration regard the top of an institution as the ideal location from which to work change.
Judging from his involvement in planning for the occupation of Iraq, Wolfowitz is a fan of large-scale infrastructure projects, something the Bank has been moving incrementally away from. Rather than pumping money into microeconomic efforts of the sort which would have been so helpful in Iraq, he’ll likely bring a bad case of giganticism to his new post. And the poor in the countries he focuses upon will enjoy the luxury of being trickled down upon by a Renaissance man.
Cheers,
wb
/