By David Zielenziger: Subscribe to David's RSS feed
February 15, 2012 3:49 PM EST
President Barack Obama has the chance to change world economic development when he selects the next President of the World Bank, the outgrowth of World War II-era plans to use rich counties to spearhead economic growth.
Robert E. Zoellick, 58, a Republican appointed in 2007 by President George W. Bush, announced his retirement. His term ends June 30. Zoellick was Bush's second candidate after his predecessor. Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy defense secretary, resigned in a sex scandal.
By custom, the U.S. appoints the World Bank president while Europe designates the director of the companion International Monetary Fund. France's Christine Lagarde replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn last year, shortly after his arrest for alleged rape in New York. He was subsequently cleared.
Obama's first choice for the job is no longer living: that would be Stanley Ann Dunham, whose pioneering work in anthropology, especially in how rural women created handicraft markets in Indonesia and developed rural economies, was later acknowledged to be groundbreaking.
Dunham, the president's mother, died in 1995. Part of Obama's childhood was spent in Indonesia as she pursued her doctoral work for the University of Hawaii.
Follow us
Two other candidates were cited immediately: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 64, who has no economics background, and former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, 57, a former Obama adviser, whose stupid remarks about women and science while he was president of Harvard University would likely disqualify him.
"Issues of intrinsic aptitude" mean there are fewer women than men in science, said Summers, a well-regarded economist and nephew of two Nobel laureates in economics. The remarks led to his Harvard resignation. Summers was succeeded by historiian Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard's first woman president.
Here are five more realistic candidates:
John Kerry. The Massachusetts senator who was the Democratic candidate for President against Bush in 2004, would be a good bet. Kerry, 68, has long wanted a seat on the global stage and now serves as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A seat at the World Bank, though, would give Kerry a classy finish to his political career and move him into issues he cares about, such as health and development on a world level. He also would be instantly acceptable to other governments.
Christina Romer, 53, is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where she returned following service as Chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisers in Obama's first year.
Romer would be the first woman World Bank chief as well as the first academic. Most others, like Zoellick, Robert McNamara or Eugene Black, have come from government but with business backgrounds.
Joe Biden. The Vice President, 69, isn't going to be President, so sending him to the World Bank could cap his career as well as give Obama the choice to pick a new running mate. While this would be a huge political shift, Biden, like Kerry, has had years of interest in foreign relations and headed the foreign relations committee in two periods under the second Bush.
Sending Biden to the World Bank might enhance the institution's stature and conceivably shift its mission to 21st century goals. To be sure, Biden lacks executive ability, although as Vice President, he helped shepherd through tricky nuclear arms treaties with Russia and other matters.
The Most Dangerous US States to Drive In 2012 [SLIDESHOW]
After Greece Exits The Euro, What's Next? An Illustrated Guide To 5 Possible Scenarios
TCS World 10K Bangalore 2012 Free App For iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone [Download Links]
Spain's Bankia Suspends Shares On Bailout Rumors
Rare Aerial Footage Showing Uncontacted Yanomami Indian Tribe in Brazil Released [VIDEO, PICTURES]We value your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.
