Lawrence Summers Blast From the Past

This is the letter Lawrence Summers wrote about the financial benefits of more pollution. Summers penned this disaster when he was the chief economist of the World Bank. Clink the image to enlarge.

Great Moments In Conservative Punditry

Mark Noonan kicks out this truthiness with this missive.

By mere fact of bald-faced lie endlessly repeated, it has become a matter of "fact" that there is something questionable about it. Based upon this manufactured "fact", we now have a crisis over whether or not Wolfowitz should stay on - and while no one out there (other than kook leftists) is actually stating that some sort of crime took place, the word is coming out that Wolfowitz should step down because he is bringing dishonor to the World Bank.

Yes, there is nothing unethical about Wolfowitz giving his girlfriend a tax-free raise. Even when he was told not to. The World Bank report is online. Perhaps Noonan can enlighten us about the "lies" in these findings.

Wolfowitz has resigned. This proves my theory about the Bush vote of confidence curse.

Bad News For Wolfowitz

Bad news for everyone's favorite romantic neoconservative.

A World Bank investigation panel has found the bank's president Paul Wolfowitz violated his contract by promoting his partner within the organisation.

The panel has ruled that Mr Wolfowitz's actions constituted a conflict of interest.

The finding makes it increasingly difficult for the former Bush Administration official to keep his post.

The Bush administration did their usual tactic of trying to delay the release of the panel report. The White House did not want the World Bank board to read the damaging findings.

The special panel said the full 24-member board must consider whether Wolfowitz "will be able to provide the leadership" to ensure that the bank achieves its mission of fighting poverty around the world.

The White House and Wolfowitz are wasting their time fighting this. Wolfowitz was disliked by Bank members when he got the job. Now that he is knee deep in a scandal of showing favoritism towards his girlfriend; there is no way he can continue as President. Bank members are already in open revolt. The longer Wolfowitz and the Bushies fight this the more damge they inflict upon themselves.

Wolfowitz Fights On

Paul Wolfowitz has no intention of resigning from the World Bank. He has hired the legal council of Robert Bennett. Wolfowitz and Bennett intend to make their case to the World Bank that Wolfowitz should remain. Both are prepared for the worst.

He said Wolfowitz would not resign and said he had not been hired to negotiate a termination agreement for the embattled bank president, the former U.S. deputy defense secretary and architect of the invasion of Iraq.

President Bush has expressed confidence in Wolfowitz. Which is never a good sign in situations like this. Meanwhile, the list of people who want Wolfowitz out grows.

In an open letter to the Financial Times newspaper, 42 former World Bank officials, including several Vice Presidents, say Mr Wolfowitz has lost the trust and respect of staff at all levels and he must quit to help preserve the Bank's reputation.

Wolfowitz only got the World Bank job because Bush had to get him out of the Pentagon for screwing up Iraq so badly.

Wolfowitz Fate To Be Decided Soon

The World Bank will soon decide if they will fire Paul Wolfowitz. The 24 directers met Thursday. The subject was whether or not to fire Wolfowitz.

Meanwhile, former World Bank executives are telling Wolfowitz he should resign. Germany is giving Wolfowitz the same message. When an entire country tells someone to quit that truly is a bad sign.

Wolfowitz got into troble for giving his girlfriend Shaha Riza a raise. Riza currently makes $193,000 today. By 2010, she will make $245,000. Since she works for the World Bank the money is tax-free. Wolfowitz was advised that giving Riza would be a conflict of interest. That didn't stop him.

Dan Drezner and Matt Yglesias have an interesting discussion on Wolfowitz on Bloggingheads.tv.