-Caveat Lector- "By tradition, the president of the World Bank is required to be a citizen of the United States, while the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Bank's SISTER organization, must be European." Who is James Wolfensohn? World Bank president James Wolfensohn is a man of charm, talent and managerial skill. When he speaks in public, he conveys an impression of sincerity and commitment. He has convinced many people that the World Bank under his leadership will finally tackle poverty and environmental degradation and work for a better world. The test of his sincerity lies in the actual performance of the Bank. Since he has now been at the helm for quite some time, there is a substantial record to examine. In fact, the Bank continues to lend large sums for OIL exploration, road building, big dams and the like. So it remains environmentally unfriendly and it is hard not to conclude that its President's environmental commitment is largely rhetorical. The Bank also has recently promoted harsh "structural adjustment programs," pension privatization measures and other attacks on the poor. By all measures, income inequality worldwide continues to widen. So it would appear that Mr. Wolfensohn's "commitment" to reduce poverty is not very deep either. In March 1997, The Nation magazine published an article that reported that the Bank's lavish remodeling --at a cost of $314 million-- includes gold leaf ceilings and rare woods of the sort that are to be found only in the most elegant business offices. Though this work began before Wolfensohn took over the helm of the Bank, he does not appear to have introduced more modest plans in the meantime, even while wringing millions in interest charges from the world's poorest countries. To understand Wolfensohn, it helps to know something about him besides his engaging smile, his shock of unruly white hair, and his carefully-cultivated image as a committed social reformer. In fact, he is better understood as one of the world's richest men and sharpest financial operatives. About his personal fortune, the New York Times of September 14, 1997 said: "He enjoys the trapping of great wealth, like a private jet and a lavish vacation home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming." Wolfensohn was born in Sydney, Australia. In 1959, he took an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. He then he rose very rapidly in the financial world and developed a reputation as smart and ruthless. He held high posts in brokerage and investment firms in Australia from 1959 to 1967, when he moved to London as a top officer of the Henry Schroder investment banking group. Concern for the poor does not seem to have been on his list in those years. In 1970 he became head of Schroder's operation in New York, a post he held through 1976. He then became an executive partner in Salomon Brothers, the hard-charging bond and investment house. At Salomon he played a key role in the bailout of the Chrysler Corporation by the United States government. His Chrysler play brought him into the world of official policy in Washington, where he caught the eye of World Bank President Robert McNamara. Rumored to be on the short list as McNamara's successor, Wolfensohn speedily arranged to become a U.S. citizen so as best to qualify for the post. When the Bank passed him up, he left Salomon in 1981 to set up his own firm, James D. Wolfensohn Inc. The new firm was a key player in the hot mergers and acquisitions game on Wall Street during the 1980's (the firm has since been bought by Banker's Trust). Wolfensohn built up his own portfolio along the way and by the end of the decade, he was a millionaire many times over and a close compatriot of the Rockefeller clan. To his credit, Wolfensohn is more than just a money shark. He plays the violin and is a cultured person who appreciates the arts. He has served on the board of directors of a number of public charities, like the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has also sat on the board of a number of private corporations, like communications giant CBS. And he belongs to the ultimate insider institutions like the Bilderberg Group and the Council on Foreign Relations. Let us not judge Wolfensohn unfairly, but let us not close our eyes to who he is and how his career and his millions have shaped him. If he is a Wolf in sheep's clothing, would that really be so surprising, for a President of the World Bank? ___________________________________________ 1995: James Wolfensohn Selected President of World Bank by Henry Bofinger The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors unanimously selected James Wolfensohn on March 16 to become the institution's ninth President. Wolfensohn will assume the presidency June 1, succeeding Lewis Preston who is retiring because of ill health. Wolfensohn, 61, is an international investment banker who founded his own firm in 1981. Since 1990, he has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He is Director of both the Business Council for Sustainable Development and CBS Inc. and Chairman of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. His selection to the Bank presidency follows his nomination by the White House earlier this month, during which U.S. President Bill Clinton said, "James Wolfensohn has already had an extraordinary career in finance and public service, spanning four decades and three continents... [He] has a long-standing, broad and active interest in the developing world and development issues... At a time when the role and mission of and funding for the World Bank and other international financial institutions are major issues, the deep respect Jim Wolfensohn already enjoys will allow him to serve as a forceful advocate for the Bank and development issues." Retiring Bank President Lewis Preston issued a personal statement that read, "We have known each other a long time. He has proven himself to be a strong leader, and there is no doubt that the Bank will prosper in his able hands. I look forward to an easy transition." The Bank's executive directors accepted Preston's decision to retire with regret, with appreciation for his leadership and with best wishes for his health. Wolfensohn, upon announcement of his confirmation, said, "To follow Lew Preston is a privilege and a responsibility. He has taken a number of initiatives which I will follow... The Bank is a remarkable institution. My wife Elaine and I look forward to dedicating the rest of our working lives to advancing and developing its effectiveness for the betterment of all people." As Bank president, Wolfensohn will be ex-officio chairman of the Executive Directors of the IBRD and IDA; ex-officio chairman of the Board of Directors of the IFC, MIA, and the Administrative Council of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Dispute. Wolfensohn is a U.S. national, born in Australia. He has degrees from the University of Sydney and the Harvard Graduate School of Business. He and his wife, Elaine, have three children - Sara, Naomi and Adam. The World Bank's Presidents Though its Articles of Association do not specify the nationality of the institution's president, by a long-standing agreement the Bank's president is a U.S. national while the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the Bank's sister organization, is European. James D. Wolfensohn will become the 9th president of the World Bank on June 1 of this year. His predecessors were: EUGENE MEYER (1875-1959) who assumed office on June 2, 1946. He served as president for six months. JOHN MCCLOY (1896-1989) served from March 1947 to April 1949. He resigned from the Bank to become U.S. High Commissioner in Germany. EUGENE BLACK (1898-1992) assumed the presidency in July, 1949, and served almost 14 years. GEORGE WOODS (1901-1982), a former investment banker, served from January 1963 to March 1968. ROBERT S. MCNAMARA (1916-) became president in April 1968. He was U.S. Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson years. He served until June 1981. A.W. CLAUSEN (1923-) served one five-year term beginning July 1981. Prior to this, he was president and CEO of Bank of America and BankAmerica Corp. BARBER B. CONABLE (1922-) was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 20 years. He was Bank president from July 1986 to August 1991. Current President LEWIS T. PRESTON (1926-) took office September 1991, prior to which he was chairman of the Executive Committee of __J.P. Morgan__. The Bank Under Preston Since joining the Bank in September 1991, President Lewis Preston has guided the organization through a series of changes which have helped to position it to face the global challenges of the post-Cold War era. Above all, he has led the Bank toward being more flexible, cost-effective, and focused on results in meeting the rapidly changing needs of its 178 member countries. Preston oversaw the establishment of the organization's relationship with the states of the former Soviet Union. Two months after coming to the Bank, he traveled to Moscow to meet then-Soviet President Gorbachev and Russian President Yeltsin. Thus began one of the greatest efforts in the Bank's history in terms of re-deployment of staff and mobilizing financing. Today, the Bank is at work in all 15 states of the former Soviet Union, helping them make the transition to market economies, and its direct commitments to them exceed $5 billion. During Preston's stewardship, 23 countries joined the institution, marking one of its most rapid periods of membership growth. Of particular note during that period, the Bank began to: *provide support for the peace process and for economic development in the West Bank and Gaza; *initiated a program with the newly democratic South Africa; *and resumed lending to Viet Nam, after a 15-year hiatus. In all of this, Preston has reinforced the World Bank's core mandate to open markets and strengthen economies in order to improve the quality of life and expand prosperity for people everywhere. He emphasized that in addition to the Bank's capacity to borrow on the world's capital markets, its contribution to development in emerging economies lay increasingly in its advice and technical expertise. The composition of the Bank's lending changed dramatically under Preston, with commitments for education and health tripling over the last three years-and projected to increase by 50 percent and reach $15 billion over the next three years. Lending for environmental protection also grew rapidly, reaching $2.4 billion last year alone. And support for the private sector has been given greater emphasis: the Bank's guarantee powers have been expanded to leverage additional private financing for infrastructure and other projects; and the loan and equity commitments of the Bank's private sector affiliate, the International Finance Corporation, increased to $2.5 billion last year. To reflect these operational priorities, Preston reshaped the Bank's organizational structure, creating new units for the private sector, human resource development, and the environment. Other important institutional changes revolved around making the Bank: *more open - by expanding information available to the public about the projects that the Bank supports, and establishing an independent Inspection Panel to investigate complaints that the Bank may not have adhered to its own policies (making the Bank the first multilateral organization to create such a body); *leaner and more cost-effective - introducing a dollar budgeting and a cost-accounting system; cutting costs; altering the skills mix of staff and removing an entire layer of management superstructure; *results oriented - from the beginning of his presidency, Preston emphasized that it is results that count. At his initiative, the Bank focused more on the impact of projects already being implemented - and less on increasing the volume of new lending in itself. This led to a significant restructuring of the Bank's portfolio in a large number of countries. Also under his leadership, the Bank moved from a project-by-project operational approach to countrywide strategies, with assistance programs tailored to the specific needs of different clients. "We must be as effective in helping with privatization as in helping to increase education for girls; from assisting with economic reforms in the former Soviet Union to fighting hunger and disease in Sub-Saharan Africa," he said. ___________________________________ <cont'd in part 2> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om