[Mb-civic] Wanted: Dirty Rotten Scoundrel

[Michael Butler]

AlterNet
Wanted: Dirty Rotten Scoundrel
By John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies
Posted on March 5, 2005, Printed on March 7, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/21415/

1. He would follow in the great tradition of World Bank president Robert
McNamara, who also helped kill tens of thousands of people in a poor country
most Americans couldn't find on a map before getting the job.

2. It helps to be a good liar when you run an institution with employees who
earn over $100,000 a year to pretend to help billions of people who live on
less than $1 a day.

3. With all his experience helping U.S. companies grab Iraq 's oil profits,
he's got just the right experience for doling out lucrative World Bank
contracts to U.S. businesses.

4. After predecessor James Wolfensohn blew millions of dollars on
"consultations" with citizen groups to give the appearance of openness,
Wolfowitz's tough-guy style is just what's needed to rid the World Bank of
those irritating activists.

5. Unlike former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, another one of the four
leading candidates, at least Wolfowitz hasn't failed at running a Fortune
500 company.

6. Unlike the Treasury Department's John Taylor, another leading candidate,
at least Wolfowitz doesn't want to get rid of the institution he would head.

7. While earning a University of Chicago Ph.D., he was exposed to the tenets
of market fundamentalism that have reigned at the World Bank for decades.

8. He has experience in constructing echo chambers where only the advice he
wants to hear is spoken.

9. He knows some efficient private contractors who build echo chambers for
only a few hundred billion dollars (cost plus, of course).

10. He can develop a pre-emptive poverty doctrine where the World Bank could
invade countries that fail to make themselves safe for U.S. business,
modeled on the U.S. pre-emptive war doctrine he helped craft.
© 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/21415/