Uh-oh. Evidently the powers that be think that Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld's deputy secretary of defense, has the right stuff to run the World Bank.

To those in the U.S., Europe, or any other region with strong capital markets, this announcement is of little direct consequence. But the Bank is of direct consequence for the majority of people on the planet, and for them the fact that Wolfowitz may soon lead the Bank does not bode well.

Never mind Wolfowitz' role in the Iraq war or other large-scale operations which required successful organizational management but did not receive it. The Pentagon has engaged in some rather perfidious accounting practices under his and Rumsfeld's watch (see immediately below), and that alone should bar his eligibilty.

This is a man, after all, who told a convening Senate committee that he could not possibly predict the cost of the Iraq war because in the future nothing is certain. That reasoning may work on the American public, but I highly doubt it will fly with the Bank's board of directors.