A few weeks ago, Jeffrey Sachs wrote an op ed for Project Syndicate in relation the the new President of the World Bank, a position that will need to be filled in a couple of months.
That was an odd article because when he described what the President of the World Bank ought to look like, it appeared as if he was talking about... himself? Was Jeff applying for the position through the press? People wondered for a few weeks.
The uncertainty was resolved TODAY, when Jeff wrote another op ed, this time at the Washington Post (see the LINK here) where he openly states that he wants to be president and presents his extraordinary credentials.
Needless to say that as a colleague (and a former student of his), I would love to see Jeff be the president of the World Bank. The World Bank needs an overhaul and Jeff does certainly have the knowledge and the experience to do it. He is smart and charismatic but he has one problem: he is an American. And there is a worldwide movement to end the tradition that Europe names the managing director of the IMF and the US the president of the World Bank.
