The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations (Council on Foreign Relations Books (Penguin Press))
by Sebastian Mallaby
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Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.1532092
EAN: 9780143036791
ISBN: 0143036793
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 496
Publication Date: 2006-04-25
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A sober, readable account on the Bank mission
Comment: I have read some books about Africa lately and I was interested in knowing the work made by the World Bank in this continent. Althought the book is focused in James Wolfensohn Presidency, this was a revealing reading that shows all the difficulties the Bank must face in order to provide the best aid to the target country and to keep the bank shareholders satisfied. Adding to that, the book describes the problems in the management of the Bank, its organization and inertia, the always problematics NGOs, and more importantly, the way to help countries in their "economic development", which is by far a very difficult thing to do. There is no recipe for that, you can establish a framework but there are other factors to consider in a case by case basis -- certainly reading Wolfensohn experience ultimately provide that, experience and knowledge. This is a well researched book, readable in its whole extension.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Trade in your development hat for a political one...
Comment: A lot of us get into the development business starry-eyed and hoping to change the world in a positive way, small as it may be. Unfortunately many of us are unprepared for the stark political reality which dominates the development business and really discourages us bleeding heart liberals. And guess what, it's not always about the poor. Mallaby writes very well, and you really start to empathize with the tempermental and difficult Wolfenson. Although one of the more dedicated World Bank presidents (he changed his nationality hoping to increase his chances) with a committment to development, he constantly had to battle his way through a number of vested political interests (including his own) and still got nowhere close to meeting the Bank's mission of a "world free of poverty." Mallaby shows that the development business is not for the faint-hearted: whether you're working for an NGO, bilateral or multilateral agency. Wolfensohn not only took a beating, but so did his staff who had to put up with his temper. In sum, this should be required reading for those contemplating a career in development.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A story of burning ambition
Comment: A story of burning ambition. Make no mistake about it, James Wolfensohn wanted to be head of the World Bank. He desired it from the late 1970s until 1995 when he finally achieved his ambition, becoming an American citizen in a rushed ceremony to make himself more presentable to the political circles in Washington that always select the Bank's chief.
Biographer Sebastian Mallaby, a British-born columnist for the Washington Post and previously the Economist magazine, describes Wolfensohn as "the most ambitious man I know". He reports this son of a Jewish migrant to Australia was "beside himself with excitement" on hearing President Jimmy Carter was considering him for the World Bank's presidency in 1980.
Another 15 years would pass before Wolfensohn, who in a packed life had found time to be an Olympic fencer, Wall Street high flyer and accomplished musician, would get the job of his dreams. What followed was the most turbulent and controversial decade in the bank's history.
Mallaby asserts the upheavals were not all of Wolfensohn's making. He took over from a series of grey, uninspiring functionaries at a time when the anti-globalisation movement was beginning to get up steam. The Bank's 50th anniversary meeting in Madrid in 1994 was disrupted by demonstrators chanting "50 years is enough", denouncing its failure to address world poverty and demanding it be closed for good.
For the one-time Aussie, this was a challenge to be relished and Wolfensohn must have thought that at 60, he had accumulated all the worldly wisdom and experience needed to meet it. That he was to be proved wrong is not a total indictment of the man. There is nothing on Earth quite like the World Bank, a vast, rambling bureaucracy full of brilliant, often contending individuals, at the mercy of an overbearing board, each member with a special agenda, and besieged by non-government organisations full of passionate anger, demanding the impossible and denouncing every minor misstep.
The new man believed he could counter this with his chief assets, sincerity and charm. He could be everyone's friend, uniting donor countries, Third World governments and the plethora of non-government organisations who were his sternest critics, in one noble crusade to ban poverty from the planet. They were glorious, yet doomed ideals well suited to the man described by a colleague as "full of grandiose ideas but not much of a manager".
But was this such a bad thing? Mallaby believes that after a succession of uninspiring technocrats at its head, the Bank needed Wolfensohn's flamboyance and spontaneity, recapturing some of the pioneering spirit of one of its great presidents, Robert McNamara.
McNamara had wanted the bank to have a human face, Wolfensohn wanted it to go over the heads of grasping and often corrupt Third World governments and deal directly with those who would benefit from its loans. In the world of realpolitik neither was wholly achievable, and for Wolfensohn it was a tough lesson to learn.
He did not cope well with failure, and when a coalition of Tibetan activists, the environmental lobby and professional China haters in the US Congress scuppered the Qinghai irrigation scheme, he lashed out at his own staff. "Didn't they ever read the newspapers? Didn't they know that Tibet was supersensitive? - and he would summon people to his office and demand whose arse he should kick first. It was not an edifying spectacle..."
The US presidential transition, at the beginning of his second term, did not help matters. The new Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, was openly contemptuous of the Bank and indeed the entire international aid structure, declaring the world had spent "trillions of dollars on development and there's damn little to show for it". O'Neill offered the startling argument that if South Korea had lifted itself from poverty to middle-class comfort in four decades, every Third World country should be able to do the same.
And yet the Wolfensohn-led bank somehow weathered these storms. After a late start it showed leadership in facing the AIDS threat; the more hysterical NGOs were eventually cut loose and their criticisms ignored, while some of the "Volvo-style" loan conditions, so irritating to many recipient countries, were eased.
Despite 10 years of obstructionism, bitter infighting and over-the-top criticism, the president never lost his enthusiasm for the job. At the end he was even testing the water for a third term - the Bush White House would have none of it - and he could count among his diverse friends and supporters United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
Mallaby does not come to any hard and fast conclusions about his client. He sees Wolfensohn as an indifferent manager, while giving him credit for broadening the Bank's agenda beyond macroeconomic policy to meet head on the problems of corruption and debt relief. He was able to bring the larger and more responsible NGOs on board but took a long time to realise that others "had no off switch".
The book finishes on an inconclusive note. Was Wolfensohn's presidency valuable? Did he do more harm than good? Perhaps in an increasingly complex world, with so many voices clamouring to be heard, there can no longer be clear-cut answers to questions like these. Suffice to say the World Bank survives and there are no mass demonstrations demanding that "60 years is enough".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another reason to abolish the World Bank
Comment: The World Bank has done nothing more than enslave the people of lesser-developed countries in sweatshop labor camps to help their countries claw their way out of debt traps, while the leaders of these countries steal the funds and export it to Swiss bank accounts. This account of failed World Bank president Paul Wolfenson's term demonstrates again how big money doesn't help LDCs to improve the livelihoods of their people. I really recommend this book, especially following the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize to someone who understands the principles of microlending. Microlending will help many more people get on their feet than these huge disbursements of World Bank cash that prop up corrupt governments that oppress the poor.
Customer Rating:
Summary: very readable and well researched
Comment: it's strange that sby would think fit to write a review without reading the book, particularly when the rating is so extreme, though credit should be given for honesty (in admitting not having read the book)
this book is indeed very readable and well researched, it's a rare book that provide insights into the world's most important institution that fights proverty, and correct many biased views that are fostered by the media and the ngos
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A sober, readable account on the Bank mission
Comment: I have read some books about Africa lately and I was interested in knowing the work made by the World Bank in this continent. Althought the book is focused in James Wolfensohn Presidency, this was a revealing reading that shows all the difficulties the Bank must face in order to provide the best aid to the target country and to keep the bank shareholders satisfied. Adding to that, the book describes the problems in the management of the Bank, its organization and inertia, the always problematics NGOs, and more importantly, the way to help countries in their "economic development", which is by far a very difficult thing to do. There is no recipe for that, you can establish a framework but there are other factors to consider in a case by case basis -- certainly reading Wolfensohn experience ultimately provide that, experience and knowledge. This is a well researched book, readable in its whole extension.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Trade in your development hat for a political one...
Comment: A lot of us get into the development business starry-eyed and hoping to change the world in a positive way, small as it may be. Unfortunately many of us are unprepared for the stark political reality which dominates the development business and really discourages us bleeding heart liberals. And guess what, it's not always about the poor. Mallaby writes very well, and you really start to empathize with the tempermental and difficult Wolfenson. Although one of the more dedicated World Bank presidents (he changed his nationality hoping to increase his chances) with a committment to development, he constantly had to battle his way through a number of vested political interests (including his own) and still got nowhere close to meeting the Bank's mission of a "world free of poverty." Mallaby shows that the development business is not for the faint-hearted: whether you're working for an NGO, bilateral or multilateral agency. Wolfensohn not only took a beating, but so did his staff who had to put up with his temper. In sum, this should be required reading for those contemplating a career in development.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A story of burning ambition
Comment: A story of burning ambition. Make no mistake about it, James Wolfensohn wanted to be head of the World Bank. He desired it from the late 1970s until 1995 when he finally achieved his ambition, becoming an American citizen in a rushed ceremony to make himself more presentable to the political circles in Washington that always select the Bank's chief.
Biographer Sebastian Mallaby, a British-born columnist for the Washington Post and previously the Economist magazine, describes Wolfensohn as "the most ambitious man I know". He reports this son of a Jewish migrant to Australia was "beside himself with excitement" on hearing President Jimmy Carter was considering him for the World Bank's presidency in 1980.
Another 15 years would pass before Wolfensohn, who in a packed life had found time to be an Olympic fencer, Wall Street high flyer and accomplished musician, would get the job of his dreams. What followed was the most turbulent and controversial decade in the bank's history.
Mallaby asserts the upheavals were not all of Wolfensohn's making. He took over from a series of grey, uninspiring functionaries at a time when the anti-globalisation movement was beginning to get up steam. The Bank's 50th anniversary meeting in Madrid in 1994 was disrupted by demonstrators chanting "50 years is enough", denouncing its failure to address world poverty and demanding it be closed for good.
For the one-time Aussie, this was a challenge to be relished and Wolfensohn must have thought that at 60, he had accumulated all the worldly wisdom and experience needed to meet it. That he was to be proved wrong is not a total indictment of the man. There is nothing on Earth quite like the World Bank, a vast, rambling bureaucracy full of brilliant, often contending individuals, at the mercy of an overbearing board, each member with a special agenda, and besieged by non-government organisations full of passionate anger, demanding the impossible and denouncing every minor misstep.
The new man believed he could counter this with his chief assets, sincerity and charm. He could be everyone's friend, uniting donor countries, Third World governments and the plethora of non-government organisations who were his sternest critics, in one noble crusade to ban poverty from the planet. They were glorious, yet doomed ideals well suited to the man described by a colleague as "full of grandiose ideas but not much of a manager".
But was this such a bad thing? Mallaby believes that after a succession of uninspiring technocrats at its head, the Bank needed Wolfensohn's flamboyance and spontaneity, recapturing some of the pioneering spirit of one of its great presidents, Robert McNamara.
McNamara had wanted the bank to have a human face, Wolfensohn wanted it to go over the heads of grasping and often corrupt Third World governments and deal directly with those who would benefit from its loans. In the world of realpolitik neither was wholly achievable, and for Wolfensohn it was a tough lesson to learn.
He did not cope well with failure, and when a coalition of Tibetan activists, the environmental lobby and professional China haters in the US Congress scuppered the Qinghai irrigation scheme, he lashed out at his own staff. "Didn't they ever read the newspapers? Didn't they know that Tibet was supersensitive? - and he would summon people to his office and demand whose arse he should kick first. It was not an edifying spectacle..."
The US presidential transition, at the beginning of his second term, did not help matters. The new Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, was openly contemptuous of the Bank and indeed the entire international aid structure, declaring the world had spent "trillions of dollars on development and there's damn little to show for it". O'Neill offered the startling argument that if South Korea had lifted itself from poverty to middle-class comfort in four decades, every Third World country should be able to do the same.
And yet the Wolfensohn-led bank somehow weathered these storms. After a late start it showed leadership in facing the AIDS threat; the more hysterical NGOs were eventually cut loose and their criticisms ignored, while some of the "Volvo-style" loan conditions, so irritating to many recipient countries, were eased.
Despite 10 years of obstructionism, bitter infighting and over-the-top criticism, the president never lost his enthusiasm for the job. At the end he was even testing the water for a third term - the Bush White House would have none of it - and he could count among his diverse friends and supporters United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
Mallaby does not come to any hard and fast conclusions about his client. He sees Wolfensohn as an indifferent manager, while giving him credit for broadening the Bank's agenda beyond macroeconomic policy to meet head on the problems of corruption and debt relief. He was able to bring the larger and more responsible NGOs on board but took a long time to realise that others "had no off switch".
The book finishes on an inconclusive note. Was Wolfensohn's presidency valuable? Did he do more harm than good? Perhaps in an increasingly complex world, with so many voices clamouring to be heard, there can no longer be clear-cut answers to questions like these. Suffice to say the World Bank survives and there are no mass demonstrations demanding that "60 years is enough".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another reason to abolish the World Bank
Comment: The World Bank has done nothing more than enslave the people of lesser-developed countries in sweatshop labor camps to help their countries claw their way out of debt traps, while the leaders of these countries steal the funds and export it to Swiss bank accounts. This account of failed World Bank president Paul Wolfenson's term demonstrates again how big money doesn't help LDCs to improve the livelihoods of their people. I really recommend this book, especially following the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize to someone who understands the principles of microlending. Microlending will help many more people get on their feet than these huge disbursements of World Bank cash that prop up corrupt governments that oppress the poor.
Customer Rating:
Summary: very readable and well researched
Comment: it's strange that sby would think fit to write a review without reading the book, particularly when the rating is so extreme, though credit should be given for honesty (in admitting not having read the book)
this book is indeed very readable and well researched, it's a rare book that provide insights into the world's most important institution that fights proverty, and correct many biased views that are fostered by the media and the ngos
Never has the World Bank’s relief work been more important than in the last nine years, when crises as huge as AIDS and the emergence of terrorist sanctuaries have threatened the prosperity of billions. This journalistic masterpiece by Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby charts those controversial years at the Bank under the leadership of James Wolfensohn—the unstoppable power broker whose daring efforts to enlarge the planet’s wealth in an age of globalization and terror were matched only by the force of his polarizing personality. Based on unprecedented access to its subject, this captivating tour through the messy reality of global development is that rare triumph—an emblematic story through which a gifted author has channeled the spirit of the age.
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