Friday, May 11, 2007

Let's Abolish the World Bank

George Will writes in his column this week that the World Bank faces much bigger problems than the situtation with Paul Wolfowitz and his girlfriend. In fact, Will says that the rationale for the World Bank was never strong, and has now evaporated, especially because of the waste and corruption of the political yet unaccountable distribution of many billions of World Bank dollars.

What cures poverty is economic growth, and the prerequisite for growth is free markets allocating private capital to efficient uses, not the World Bank's intrusive government actions on behalf of fashionable causes.

According to Will, "It is difficult to demonstrate that World Bank loans have produced growth, let alone as much growth as private capital would have produced."