World Bank

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Response, May/June 2009
Robert Madsen; Richard Katz

Does the current financial crisis resemble Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s? It may be even worse, argues Robert Madsen. Not so, replies Richard Katz.

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Comment, Jan/Feb 2006
Jessica Einhorn

The World Bank's outdated financial structure is a threat to its continued relevance. Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's new president, should begin closing the wing of the bank that lends to middle-income countries.

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Essay, May/Jun 2005
Sebastian Mallaby

The next World Bank president will confront a nearly impossible challenge: saving the institution from a curious alliance of conservatives and radical activists that threatens to undercut its financial viability and effectiveness. Failure to head off the danger will mean the gradual decline of the best tool the world has for managing globalization, just when that tool is more needed than ever.

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Essay, Sep/Oct 1994
Henry Owen

The World Bank Group was a child of World War II, conceived to help developing countries build infrastructure, establish the foundations of economic self- sufficiency, and indirectly nurture political stability. But it should not retire at the age of 50. The bank's mission should be revised to benefit from the colossal growth of private sector financial resources and to help coordinate the work of nongovern­mental organizations. A good first step would be more openness about its work.

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Essay, Summer 1989
Jeffrey Sachs

The Brady plan, for reducing Third World debt through cuts in principal and/or interest, will probably fail if creditor participation remains voluntary, with each bank holding out and hoping that others will bear the losses. It needs a concerted effort to achieve a 'critical mass' of bank participation.

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Essay, Summer 1983
William H. Bolin and Jorge Del Canto

Over the past year, the problem of the debt of less-developed countries has been of intense concern not only to the private banks which hold most of that debt, but to the governments of the LDCs and of the creditor countries and to the multilateral institutions that have had to play a major part in a well-coordinated initial set of measures to stem the problem and bring it gradually under control. These efforts remain of the utmost importance for the continuation of a worldwide economic recovery and for the stability and progress of the LDCs themselves.

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Essay, Fall 1981
William Clark

From April 1, 1968 to June 30, 1981, Robert McNamara served as President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, more commonly known as the World Bank. Each of its five Presidents has left a distinct mark on the institution; none has had a greater personal impact on both the substance and style of its operations.

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Essay, Jul 1973
Escott Reid

On March 31 of this year, Robert McNamara completed the first five years of his ten-year term as President of the World Bank Group. He has almost doubled in real terms the volume of lending by the Bank Group. He has more than doubled the size of the professional staff. He has changed the administrative structure. He has improved the relations of the Bank Group with the other international and national aid agencies. He has given the developing member-countries significant new help in their efforts to reduce their birth rates and to reconcile economic growth with the protection of their environment. He has set new criteria for lending.

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Essay, Oct 1963
Robert V. Roosa

Since the return of convertibility among the currencies of most major industrial countries at the beginning of 1959, a crisis affecting at least one major currency has threatened each year; the U.S. balance of payments has been in continuous large deficit; and the stability of the convertible gold-dollar and sterling system has been increasingly questioned. With the transition to convertibility proving to be so turbulent, doubts have arisen over the adequacy of liquidity arrangements for the future and calls for a great reform of the international monetary system have quite understandably been intensified.

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Essay, Oct 1962
Barbara Ward Jackson

What are programs of economic assistance for? After a dozen years of them, the question still has to be asked. Otherwise how can their effectiveness be judged? Clearly, there is no consensus. For some they are tools to stop Communism, for others to propagate Western ideas, for still others to defend Western interests. All these factors certainly enter in but they do not explain why or how such programs can have these effects. In fact, as critics are quick to point out, some assistance programs do not. Countries can swallow aid like blotting paper and at the end of the process are no more pro-Western, anti-Communist or secure and stable than they were at the start.

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