Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, and a man who believes that 2009 will be a “dangerous year”, will be speaking on March 31st and has agreed to take questions from Reuters readers.
Zoellick has been outspoken during the current economic crisis predicting the first shrinking of the economy since the ’30s, warning that increased government spending will simply create a ‘sugar high‘ until banks’ toxic assets are dealt with properly, and urging a tougher stand against protectionism.
But the World Bank’s primary focus is on helping developing nations and alleviating poverty. Earlier this month it published research showing that the spreading crisis will push 46 million more people into poverty in 2009 on top of 130-155 million pushed into poverty in 2008.
With the London summit of the Group of 20 nations on April 2nd fast approaching what do you want to know about the World Bank’s role in shoring up the world economy and helping poorer nations? Use the comments section below, or use the #askwb tag on Twitter, and I’ll get as many of your questions to Robert Zoeliick as possible.
UPDATE: This event has now taken place and you can view the questions we put to Robert Zoellick in the player below. We have no means to pass on any further questions to the World Bank but you are welcome to add your comments on the discussion thread below.
How closer have we come to eliminating world poverty and creating financial equality among humans on our planet according to the goals of your institution?
What steps are you taking to correct the errors and to improve this necessary vision?
Quantitative and qualitative speaking according to factual statistics what have you really done to increase the per person income and not the average or GDP of countries since the insertion of your organization?
How come there is more and more poverty and more and more people making less and less and a few ones getting richer?
What is not working with your old proposed model and what are you going to do about it now?
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The best solution is to abolish the corrupt FED. Return to a gold standard currency. And totally outlaw the fraudulent derivatives market which is void of real value. The enterprises of the hard working private sector have had enough ponzi style financial fraud especially in high government. Limit government. Wash DC exists for and from the people not the people existing for DC. This is way out of line. We have had enough lies and deceit.
1. Is the World Bank not responsible for answering every single question posted here on this debate?
The World Bank IS called the *WORLD* Bank.
2. Does this not imply that this organisation must have the well beeing of the 6 billion human inhabitants and countless non human inhabitants, as its primary concern?
Considering the weaknesses of previous World Bank and IMF recommended policies such as the Structural Adjustment Programme in developing countries, and given the present financial crisis which seems to pin point some of the underlying structural and ideoligical weaknesses of the economic models in the most developed countries, what do you think will be the implications of these events on the reception and execution of future donor recommended economic policies for developing countries?
Do you believe that concept of money has been more beneficient than harmful for all humans and the nature of this planet, until this moment in time? (including its side effects and advantages)
Is your vision of the future one where money and currency will be beneficient (positive, good) for all humans on this planet and at the same time beneficient (positive, good) for the nature of this planet as a whole?
Do you sincerely think that such a scenario would be possible?
Are you working for that utopia or not?
The world is awash with cash with no safe place
to invest.The investing public are suffering a
loss of faith in governments and financial institutions.
The IMF holds the key to unlocking the global
financial gridlock by way of enabling IMF member
countries citizens to directly invest in SDR’s.
Such a truely international currency unit should be the most appealing
investment in the world - even surpassing US Treasury
Bonds . So - why can’t the IMF allow such private investment in SDR’s ?? Why can’t this simplistic
and logical move be considered by the IMF.
The Bank and the IFC need to get out of development and go back to old fashioned bank lending to developing countries. The Bnk should focus on just a few things that will help to reduce, if not eradicate poverty and improve the well-being of people in developing countries:
1. Make loans and grants to enable affordable energy, accessible potable water, sanitation systems, affordable and clean public transport including improved and extended road and railway systems.
2. Begin a major focus on cities in the developing world that are growing at unprecedented rates, and where infrastructure is negligible and life-styles are awful.
3. Acknowledge, with WHO that certain diseases that take huge amounts of money now, are essentially diseases of choice and life-style diseases–e.g. AIDS, lung cancers. Don’t be overrun by the hype of lobbying groups whose special communities practice life styles that the rest of society has to support. There are plenty of other health issues that need attention.
4. begin to develop with developing countries a sense of a vision of what they want their country’s to look like beyond being copies of the material West. The West’s legacy to the developing countries has been rank materialism. They need to develop visions for themselves that include common values over and above petty tribal values. The Bank should then support communication and social marketing programs to help these values get intgerated into the system
5. Put more focus on getting girls into secondary education. They are the hope of the future. Not men.
6. Start selecting your staff from places other than the major Universities top ten Univesities like Harvard or Yale. Stop using them as training grounds for recycling your staff or training new staff. These elite institutions were the ones whose world view and philosophies have led Institutions like yours into bad lending practices and poor results in the first place. Stop thinking that you have diversity in your staff when they they come from the elites in their home countries and attended elite institutions. There is no differnece in their world view from a Boston Brahmin.
7. Start funding NGOs directly. People in developing countries can complain about the wealthy life style of NGOs, but the truth is that most NGO staff live modest lives. The World bank only reluctantly supports MGOs. Why not put together an NGO Board that would screen unsolicted proposals and fund them. The Bank could then provide the research support to see what works and what doesn’t work. It’s the best way to get innovation into the system.
What would be wrong with having a World Reserve Currency based on the value of gold, silver, platinum and palladium instead of the present US$ which seems to be only based on faith and hope?
Are not the trillions of dollars now being added to the money supply, in addition to the approximately $5.5 trillion added since the year 2000 going to significantly debase the currency further?
[...] summit this Thursday, you can ask questions of Robert Zoelllick, president of the World Bank, at this Reuters web page or by using the Twitter hashtag [...]
Sir, are there any aspects of your work that takes into consideration effect of this crisis on the relations and dynamics between Europe, Africa and the African diaspora, (that is those individuals of African descent, born and bred), as “Black Europeans”. The same question would apply to Latin America.
How can a Bank support stability when it only supports Consumption without Restriction?
If banks give money to producers and consumers, the question becomes thus: if both grow each others interactions with the other, then how can either gain more and then how can the bank gain? Consumers are borrowing, and industry are borrowing, and both have called forth greater availability of cash.
As Warren Buffet does with BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC., he does not split stock despite the ‘greater demand’ for it. However governments do not do this and instead inflate money by printing destroying current value without creating value creating a need for interest rates due to the destruction of old money. It is rather the same with any valuable similar gold as its usefulness does not deteriorate with the discovery of more usefulness rather than availability like diamonds.
What is the World Bank going to do to stop the endless cycle of creation and destruction of value which has necessitated the need of interest?
Do you think due to protectionism and isolationism, currently growing in the world today due to the economic problems we are encoutereing, that the 3rd world war will occcur in 5, 10, or 15 years from now, and will it be nuclear only in the northern hemispheres. tx.r.ce.
Do you really think your “secret” plan of carbon tax / credits is actually going to go over with us? It won’t.
Most people know “climate change” is a total lie. Most of us know that everything that comes out of you or your banking cabal friends’ mouths are all lies.
We know you are in the business of enslavement. Is that why poverty and genocide is INCREASING since you’ve been on the scene?
Sir,
Thank you for your demonstrated commitment to a rapid agreement at the G20 summit. The world is watching impatiently.
Do you have any hesitations that the only path to a successful global solution is as stated by the dominant narrative, illuminated for the benefit of stakeholders, and reiterated as follows:
No matter how the consensus is exposed on the surface’s discourse, be it by flowery diction or unadorned truth, the key necessitates these initial demands:
1) Transparency of all transactions including selection of your successors.
Abiding by sanctions against individuals and entities that commit gross violations of international treaties.
2) Delinking of so-called ‘neoliberalization policies’ from the monetary functions of the bank.
3) The resetting of the eligibility criteria for loans.
4) The resetting and enforcement of criteria for debt relief.
5) A promise to mandate non-protectionist competitive bidding for investment contracts.
6) The duty to fight corruption, dependency on aid, and dictatorship.
7) Respect for the will of the people as the entitlement of sovereign nations.
9) A refusal to enable terrorist networks.
10) Arrest of all policies that force overconsumption and other unsustainable practices.
11) Cooperation with trilateral intelligence operations, and an understanding of your power and responsibility in fragile times.
Your reaction is truly apprecia-
ted,
Capacita Disraeli
To what degree do you think that the rolling out of bio-char carbon sequestration/gas producing technologies will offset any worst case scenarios you have in mind for the presumed ‘dangerous year’ of 2009?
When will someone own up to that fact that the system cannot be fixed because it is the system that is the problem. Democracy ends at the office or factory door. Those of us who work are not allowed to participate in decisions over what goods and services are provided, how work is done and how profits are allocated. Why don’t smart people like you just go away and stop torturing the rest of us. We dummies can work things out.
What are the best non-profits (or for profits) do you think for people interested in helping the most people break the cycle of poverty?
Development is usually seen as the best, fastest way to reducing poverty.
Commit the world bank to building roads and access to clean water in the least developed world.
Do you feel that the banking restrictions that were relaxed during the Reagan Administration have contributed to the crisis we’re now experiencing? If so, should those restrictions be put back into place? It seems to me that many of those restrictions were designed to prevent this very thing from happening.
Public discourse on development aid tends to end with how much money is being spent. Sometimes people talk about corruption. But In many parts of Africa, educated Africans view NGO work is a cushy job, with little accountability for their results. What will it take to get policy-makers (and commentators) fulminating about the incredible wastes and inefficiencies in aid, and lack of accountability for results (reduced poverty, child mortality, whatever)?
Well I know the world is really run by the globalist banking elite and in the USA the Godfather has been David Rockefeller. Nick has been over in Chindia for quite awhile and I myself have been in over 30 countries. The big banking dream is to control the world but I doubt it will be for the average person’s benefit. You will have what you now an elite and the masses and with the population increasing on a limited ball in space less to go around. The globlist bankers will want to control the basic resources and the people through debt. As I was down in Brazil at GM back in the late 80’s and know the history I’m sorry to say the people don’t seem to be on a banker’s balance sheet-they are a cost! I do understand the frustrations of companies trying to operate across national boundaries but when the people are too poor then the reaction is usually tighter restrictions on business which cuts their profits. There is a fine line between business and the people’s perception of your company and to exceed that can result in horrible repression and a backlash that can endanger the whole system if taken too far. Backing Pinochet in Chile was a nasty business and backing thr military in ‘64 in Brazil was rough too. A good example too would be Iran in 53′ for British Petroleum which has resulted in first a brutal regime and then the backlash. Basically this is international gangsterism but I observed one curious thing as a youth. My first job(lied about my age to get) was at an A&P packing plant which the Italian mob took over. Although they could muscle into a business they couldn’t run a sustainable operation and it soon went under. A good businessman runs a clean operation sustainably whether illegal or legal and Meyer Lansky proved that with his Casinos. Gangsters do not run sustainable busineses they fleece them. Question is for the World Bank is are you financial gangsters or are you truly out to run a sustainable planet? It’s a clear choice at this point.