Yes, I know (of) Dennis and his occasional prophet in the wilderness pronouncements from the cosy environs of Mass Ave. Poverty has been good to DdeT. I wasn’t aware of the EXIM angle, however, so v much thanks for that. I was more focussed at the time on (perversely) grass roots and the banking workout.

Ok, Dennis did himself no favors arguing against increased governance and anti-corruption efforts in the World Bank after the Volcker panel report last October. He ran a line that better anti-corruption efforts from the World Bank are a bit like putting a burglar alarm in your own home, while recognizing theft of, around, and amongst, the neighbors. (This @ http://www.cgdev.org) . Sorry, does not compute. There’s a fiduciary duty from the top down to see that the money goes where it’s supposed to. This is irreducible. But there are mistakes and failures, so one has to question, why, how, with what impact and is it instance or pattern? At least people should be pushing the bank on that front.

Allied to that point, anyone care to assess why the WB put in Mark Baird fairly swiftly after the Stiglitz/EAP Regional/de Traay fight to straighten things out? .

Matt

Do not know if this post is closed. You must have met Dennis LeTray there, a Canadian who headed the WB in Indonesia at the start of the crisis. He was badly treated later, but I think he would have had similar problems with the IMF approch, especilly following on inexplicble EXIM largess re Indonesian IPPs (all very well connected).