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))

Rating:
Summary: Changes Your View of the World
Review: During the current Presidential race I've heard a lot about the current world situation. But only about a very few places. We've heard about Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan, and a little bit about a few others. But it's a lot bigger world than that. And at the middle of just about everything has been James Wolfensohn.

For the past nine years he has been president of the World Bank. He has become an almost bigger than life character and has molded this unweildy to fit his image. During these years there have been financial crises, the AIDS outbreaks in many of the poorist countries, the emergence of terrorists sanctuaries in states that have basically failed and an immense amount of corruption.

Formed as one part of a trio, along with the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank was to fund the re-development of Europe and Japan after World War II. As time went on, it became the lender of last resort to developing countries and in a perpetual tug of war between the left and right views.

Wolfensohn, is a brilliant, vain, well-meaning, short-tempered, self made multi-millionaire. He took over determined to remake the World Bank. He came up against a very messy reality of governments that didn't work, and problems almost beyond comprehension let alone solution.

The resulting book is an eye-opening presentation of the challenges and contradictions of the West's efforts to enlarge the world's wealth. Very well written, you will come away from this book with an entirely different view of the world. Excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Irrational Instincts
Review: In one fell swoop of his quixotic quill Sebastian Mallaby has managed to become the Kitty Kelly of globalization scribes. If you want to read a book about the terrors and tremors of international finance there are dozens that more efficaciously
do the job of explaining the economic conflagration that results when the impecunious peoples of the world are confronted by bankers bearing gifts. The only aspect of this book that is remotely interesting is his attempt to discredit the supposedly vainglorious leader of the World Bank, Jim Wolfensohn. In the mind and opinion of Mallaby everything that Wolfensohn does is "instinctive" and contains "no sense of strategy." (Pg. 174-175)
But, on the same page, 175, Mallaby writes that "Wolfensohn's basic instincts on development theory were pretty much on target." (Pg. 175) In that same chapter, seven, he lauds Wolfensohn for speaking out against the cancer of corruption, then reverses and infers that corruption wasn't that important, and then further complicates the issue by offering the Indonesian collapse in 1997 as an example of what corruption can do to a country. And this is in the space of one chapter. Few writers make the transition from the short form, articles,to an extended exercise: books. In this book and his recent article proclaiming
the "gut instincts" of President Bush on terrorism to be correct,
Mallaby proves himself to be poorly suited for literary survival.

Rating:
Summary: Cleverly written but intellectually dishonest
Review: Sebastian Mallaby certainly can tell a story and is an excellent writer. Unfortunately, in his latest book on the World Bank and its President, his sharp and witty pen is often aimed squarely at the wrong target.

In order to maintain his narrative thread, Mallaby resorts to broadside attacks on any non-governmental organization that has the gall to critique Bank projects and policies, and insist that the Bank adhere to minimum social and environmental safeguards when dealing with the overwhelmingly corrupt, authoritarian regimes that comprise its borrowers. It is disturbing that he would choose to "shoot the messenger" (i.e. the NGOs) rather than take an honest look at their valid concerns. In this way, Mallaby does both the Bank and his readers a disservice. Despite the heavily footnoted text, he ignores inconvenient facts and information that is readily available, and uses clever put-downs and caricatures to demean the NGO community when he cannot respond to their genuine concerns with a viable argument. His examination of a Chinese government-sponsored population transfer project in an historically Tibetan area is a particularly egregious example of the excesses and intellectual dishonesty of Mallaby's book.

It is most unfortunate that such a gifted writer approached such an important topic with such an incredible bias. Too bad that Mr. Mallaby did not put his cleverness to better use.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating, eye-opening page-turner
Review: Sebastian Mallaby uses the story of the impossible yet impressive Jim Wolfenson as a vehicle through which to scrutinize the challenges, successes and failures of world development. These two fascinating stories complement one another brilliantly - the former outrageous and fun; the latter moving and important.
Mallaby's intelligent and lively writing makes the complex and complicated accessible and understandable, yet there is no feeling of dumbing down the issues. So often vilified, in here The World Bank's sometimes helpful, sometimes destructive, always worthy attempts at helping the world's poorest are analyzed in the context of international politics and environmental issues.
Anybody interested in protecting America in this age of terror needs to get their heads around failed states, and this book is the place to start.


Rating:
Summary: The World?s Banker
Review: Sebastian Mallaby, editorial writer and columnist at the Washington Post, has come up with a page-turner on the challenges of promoting development, as seen through the eyes of World Bank President James Wolfensohn. Many success stories of the Bank's work are described in fascinating detail. In Bosnia, according to Mallaby, the Bank played an important role in brokering a peace deal between Serbs and Croats and was successful in quickly providing money and expertise for the reconstruction. In Uganda, the Bank was flexible enough to allow a home-grown poverty reduction strategy to take root and to nurture it. But the Bank's failures are also described unsparingly. Mallaby presents a detailed study of how the Bank's condoning of corruption in Indonesia was the root cause of many of the country's troubles during the Asian crisis. He also says that the Bank late and timid reaction to fight AIDS "remains inexcusable."

The portrayal of Wolfensohn is likewise two-sided. Mallaby credits his "instincts as being ahead of his peers" on the need for providing debt relief in the mid-1990s and on tackling corruption. Wolfensohn is also recognized as being instrumental in pushing for greater country ownership of reforms and for the decentralization of the Bank through the relocation of most country directors to the field. At the same time, the book has candid descriptions of what Mallaby considers to be Wolfensohn's failures, for instance his tendency to share "credit with no one."

North-based NGOs come across in Mallaby's portrayal as the villain of the piece, Lilliputians who tie down the Bank and keep it from doing good. The NGOs, says Mallaby, have killed worthy projects by overstating the likely labor and environmental impacts and insisting on standards that developing countries can ill-afford. For example, in Laos "the environmental standards that the Bank proposed for a megadam project matched those of a country like Sweden; this was like telling the Laotians that they must not travel in motorized vehicles unless they purchased brand-new Volvos with passenger air bags."

Not all Bank failures are the fault of NGOs; sometimes, says Mallaby, the Bank cannot succeed because of lack of cooperation by the client. In 1998, the Bank wanted to execute an project to combat AIDS in Russia, but the country's health ministry did not want to acknowledge the problem. When the ministry came around, Russian pharmaceutical makers blocked the Bank, fearing that it would open the drug market to foreign competitors. Russia's medical establishment was also opposed as "hospitals had a large and antiquated infrastructure for treating TB, which would be rendered redundant by the Bank's modernizations."

Mallaby's sympathetic portrayal of the Bank contrasts with some of the harsh characterizations of other observers. In his recent book Why Globalization Works, Martin Wolf calls the Bank a "fatally flawed institution," whose source of "failures was its commitment to lending." Describing the situation when he worked at the Bank in the 1970s, Wolf writes: "every division also found itself under great pressure to lend money, virtually regardless of the quality of the projects on offer or of the development programmes of the countries. This undermined the professional integrity of the staff and encouraged borrowers to pile up debt, no matter what the likely returns." The Meltzer Commission, appointed by the U.S. Congress in 1998, made a similar charge in its report. Mallaby alludes on occasion to this pressure to lend, particularly to middle-income countries, but does give it the importance ascribed by others.

Mallaby presents shifts in the types of lending favored by the Bank as an example of its learning from experience. He notes that the Bank started with the notion that "infrastructure was the route to human betterment." Then it moved from building physical capital into building human capital by funding education projects, then from human capital into social capital by funding projects to improve the quality of institutions. And, very recently, as Mallaby notes, the Bank has partially reverted to its early emphasis on physical capital. Others put a less positive spin on the Bank's intellectual journey. For example, in his book The Elusive Quest for Growth, William Easterly-a former Bank staffer-treats the same evolution as a chase after fads that failed to deliver: "We thought that certain objects associated with prosperity in the industrialized world - dams, roads, schools - could bring success to the developing world. Later, fads changed to include institutional magical objects. Thus we urged governments to embrace democracy, constitutions, independent judiciaries, decentralization to local governments and other magic bullets. None of them worked."

While the book may not satisfy critics of the Bank, its accessibility and broad scope make it required reading not just for experts on development but for anyone with curiosity about global development, the Bank, and James Wolfensohn.

Rating:
Summary: well worth the read
Review: This book actually says something new and different. It dares to talk about World Bank successes in fighting global poverty, while revealing all the bad stuff too. Finally a writer who has actually bothered to research and THINK about this subject properly. The World Bank is the most valuable resource we have when it comes to fighting the world's inequalities. I hope all the world leaders and all NGO's read this book - it might give them some ideas about how to get the best from this organization. Considering how poverty leads to terrorism, dealing with the problem just became (even more)urgent. I really recommend this book. It changed my perspective for the better. And it's not even a dry read - it actually made me laugh more than a few times. Enjoy....

Rating:
Summary: An Objective Look at the World Bank and Its Critics
Review: This insightful book manages to balance gripping story telling with a clear grasp of the technical details of international finance and development. By taking an objective look at the successes and failures of not only the Bank, but also its shareholders and critics, Mallaby manages to give an even-handed assessment of the institution and the man at its head. The book offers the lay reader the benefit of Mallaby's years of on-the-ground development experience, endless hours of interviews with the key players, and grasp of the theories underpinning the push for global development. All in all, this book achieves a rare feat: writing an informed account of development and the World Bank that remains gripping and entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Hurrah for the World's Banker
Review: This is a wonderful book that illuminates both the intriguing character of Jim Wolfensohn and the vital but perilous job that development institutions perform around the world. Mallaby's tone and pace strike a delightful balance; insightful comment and clear exposition of the challenges of world development on the front line, without ever dragging or becoming turgid.

Mallaby's pen delivers a considered judgement of Wolfensohn; brilliant, talented, effervescent, dynamic and driven, but not without weaknesses. The World Bank provides Wolfensohn with the one opportunity he clearly craves above all else: to improve the plight of millions, to make a difference. Within this complex tangle of politics, development finance and economics lurks the modern day hydra, the NGOs. So how does the hero fare? On balance, the answer is well: there are many notable achievements, along with the inevitable set backs, but above all you have to admire Wolfensohn for his dogged determination and perseverance.

As for the World Bank and the thousands that inhabit its corridors, Mallaby's conclusion is more clear. It is an easy institution to mock and to lambast, sometimes justifiably so; but in a world where the separation between the haves and the have nots is becoming ever greater, the World Bank's role of fostering development and helping the world's poor is more important than it has ever been.

All in all a gripping, eye-opening read!


Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This is a wonderful book. It is really three stories. One is a story of how the West has tried to tackle global poverty, its failures, successes and U-turns. The other is a story about the West's principal instrument for these policies, the World Bank. Any large organisation, packed with interesting people, dysfunctional teams, and huge challenges will always have a good story inside it and this is no exception. The third is a biography of the leader of this organisation and his influence upon it. These three narratives, all interesting in their own right, are skillfully interwoven to produce a trully thumping read. A real page-truner.