Kim named World Bank president

By Simon Johnson, co-author of White House Burning A decision on choosing the next president of the World Bank is expected this week – perhaps as early as Monday.  The Obama administration nominated Jim Yong Kim, president of Dartmouth College and a noted public health expert.  The reaction to this nomination from development economists and people experienced in the business of lending to poor countries has been overwhelmingly negative.

The World Bank chose Korean-American physician Jim Yong Kim as its next chief in a decision that surprised few but took beating an unprecedented challenge to the US lock on the Bank's presidency.The Bank picked the 52-year-old US health expert and educator over Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala amid rising pressure from emerging and developing countries for the huge development lender to recruit one of their own for a leader.

Despite an unprecedented challenge from two developing-world candidates, Washington's 66-year lock on the World Bank presidency will almost certainly remain intact when directors meet Monday to fill the post.Even after one of the challengers dropped out Friday to push his support to the other -- Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala -- they won't be able to overcome US and European backing for the US nominee, health expert Jim Yong Kim, analysts say.

The US nominee to lead the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, launched his global campaign in Ethiopia Thursday, while Nigerian rival Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the vote was a test of rich nations' "hypocrisy."The US Treasury Department said that Kim met with the deputy chairman of the African Union Commission, Erastus Mwencha, in Addis Ababa, in the first stop of what the Obama administration has dubbed a "global listening tour."

The Nigerian candidate to head the World Bank said on Monday that the appointment was not being decided on merit and that the US nominee would win."You know this thing is not really being decided on merit," Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also a former World Bank managing director, told reporters at a briefing on the country's 2012 budget."It is voting with political weight and shares and therefore the United States will get it."

A group of former World Bank officials on Wednesday endorsed Africa's candidate to lead the Bank, Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.In an open letter, 39 former managers and economists called on the Bank's executive board to make their decision on merit, when the board for the first time considers more than one candidate for the job."We believe that Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala has outstanding qualifications across the full range of relevant criteria," they said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Emerging economies must be given a fair shot at leading the institutions at the heart of global finance or they will end up going their own way, a challenger for the top job at the World Bank. "The balance of power in the world has shifted and emerging market countries are contributing more and more to global growth - more than 50 percent - and they need to be given a voice in running things," Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters in an interview released on Monday. "If you don't, they will lose interest. ...