This is the limit

Discussions are underway to find the next president of the World Bank before the term of the current president expires on June 1. The US and the EU normally dominate the process and because the US stood aside last year during the picking of the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European officials say they're likely to let the US have its choice.

So who, according to the March 2 Financial Times (UK), is on the US's short list to head up an institution whose supposed job is helping the developing world meet the needs of its people through economic development? Why, the answer could not be more obvious: Paul Wolfowitz.

Yes, that Paul Wolfowitz. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. Leading neocon ideologue Paul Wolfowitz. Major architect of the Iraq War Paul Wolfowitz. Zero, zip, zilch, expertise in development issues Paul Wolfowitz. That Paul Wolfowitz.

Not enthused about that? Well, how about another name on the short list: Carly Fiorina. If the name sounds familiar but you're not sure why, she was the one recently booted as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard after having accomplished pretty much nothing except buying Compaq after a bruising battle, a deal that produced bupkis for investors. Her main qualification for the job, apart from the fact that she's a right-wing Bush-lover, seems to be that she has even less development experience than Wolfowitz does.

However, they both are well-suited to carrying out the Bank's real, as opposed to its claimed, mission: Pushing big-ticket development projects that further entrench the elites in the developing world while trapping their countries in a never-ending cycle of debt.

On the other hand, if you're going to get serious about the Bank's supposed mission, you might want to give a thought to another name, proposed in all seriousness, its editor insists, by the Los Angeles Times a week ago: Bono.

Bono, the U2 rock star, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and he is a credible candidate. But we have a better idea on how best to recognize his effective lobbying on behalf of African development — Bono should be named the next president of the World Bank.

Don't be fooled by the wraparound sunglasses and the excess hipness. Bono is deeply versed in the issues afflicting the least-developed nations of the world, as former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill learned when he traveled the continent with the musician.

O'Neill, an uber-wonk, came back singing Bono's praises. Bono even brought ultra-conservative Sen. Jesse Helms to tears by relating poverty in Africa to passages in the Bible.

The editorial also calls him "the most eloquent and passionate spokesman for African aid in the Western world" and notes that in 2002 he co-founded Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa (DATA), which focuses on raising awareness of, and lobbying for solutions to, Africa's problems.

Even The Times (UK), while snippily asserting that Bono is getting the buzz rather than Bob Geldorf (who has a longer record of advocacy for the poor) because "Bono has sold more records in America in the past quarter century," admits that his candidacy "is not so ridiculous as it appears." So, as Reuters put it,

[c]ould the only person ever nominated for an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe and the Nobel Peace Prize now take over at the World Bank?

While it's fun to think about, and certainly helps to raise some discussion as to what the World Bank is about as opposed to what it's supposed to be about, the answer of course is no. Not only because I seriously doubt he would want the job, surely being aware that he is more effective as a gadfly than a bureaucrat, but more importantly because the people who will make the decision like the Bank just the way it is and would not want to see any of the changes - like a genuine commitment to the poor - Bono would try to bring.

Update: Word is that Wolfowitz is out of the running for the post.