The Duke
JohnD.Ford
Junior Chimp
Posts: 9,270
Political Matrix
E: 0.13, S: -1.23
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« on: March 19, 2005, 01:44:42 AM » |
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Wolfowitz is VERY qualified for this job. His origins are not in defense policy and warfare, they are in diplmacy and political theory.
Ambassador to Indonesia and Under Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs in the 1980s put him in first hand contact with develping nations that were actually succeeding in developing, like the Asian Tigers. He has written a lot about develoment and has clear ideas on how countries should go about development. Its based on practical experience of what works.
Its true he's not a banker, but that's a good thing. The World bank was not created to be a supranational Goldman Sachs, it was supposed to be a tool for develoment. A series of bankers at the head of the agency have left it thinkng and acting like a bank, more worried about collecting their interest payments than in fostering develoment. The last person we need there is another banker. We need someone whose background is development, not someone whose background is jamming kids on student loans.
Bankers do not understand what Wolfie does- developement is tied to the establishment of democratic government, independent judiciaries, property rights, fighting corruption, and investment in infrastructure, it is not based on floating currencies, high taxes, or gashing social services. The bankers have given us 5 decades of failed developement, unable to adapt their theories to changing conditions or discard them in the face of overwhelming evidence that their ideas are wrong.
Why in the world would I want another professional banker?
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