Trump targets the World Bank with the choice of Malpass



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Trump's candidate, David Malpass, is a former Wall Street banker who currently serves as Under Secretary of International Affairs at the US Treasury. If confirmed by the World Bank's Board of Directors, he would assume the oversight of an institution that he has decried as being misguided in his practices, particularly with regard to the China, and swollen in its expenses.

Some development experts have denounced the choice, suggesting Malpass. would use this post to undermine the bank, which provides loans to developing countries for infrastructure, health, energy and other projects.

Still, other relatives of the bank were less fatal, suggesting that Malpass was qualified and that he was a known entity, even though he directly criticizes the bank's practices.

Trump has taken a mistrustful approach to many global institutions, including the United Nations, NATO, the World Trade Organization, and the International Criminal Court. He appointed emissaries who share these views, including National Security Advisor John Bolton.

According to Aides, Trump is more interested in improving the functioning of these global institutions and in obtaining better results for the United States.

This includes the World Bank, which, according to some Trump administration officials, has overstepped its mandate and failed to follow. current geopolitical and economic trends.

Malpass's main criticisms are the large loans the World Bank sends to China, the world's second largest economy and the largest borrower of the bank. He says it does not make sense anymore as the country turns into an economic superpower. It is better, he says, to concentrate loans on developing countries that can not get capital elsewhere.

"The biggest borrower of the World Bank is China, China has a lot of resources," he told a Foreign Relations Council forum in 2017 after joining the World Bank. # 39; administration. He added, "One of the things we asked the World Bank to do is graduate countries succeed, let's reduce the loans there and allow more loans in the countries that need them."

How this view Mr. Malpass acknowledged that there was "a lot of resistance" to his point of view, but added, "We have a good dialogue with them."

He also strongly criticized the bank's staff, calling it "bloated" and overpaid, encouraging the institution to limit wage increases.

Malpass acted as economic advisor during Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. He had previously worked on Wall Street as chief economist at Bear Stearns, whose bankruptcy in early 2008 had contributed to trigger the financial crisis. What Malpass had written in an opinion piece published in the 2007 Wall Street Journal was an unlikely risk.

Seven months before the collapse of Bear Stearns, Malpass minimized the likelihood of a global economic calamity, claiming that the housing and debt markets were not playing a major role in the economy US.

"It is more likely that the economy will be robust and that it will grow steadily in the months and perhaps the years to come," he wrote.

Critics say he alone should disqualify him.

"David Malpass is a Trump loyalist who has committed economic misconduct on a wide range of topics," said Justin Sandefur, a development economist and senior researcher at the Center for Global Development. . "There is no justification for Malpass on merit, the question now is whether other countries on the World Bank's board of governors will let the Trump administration undermine a key global institution."

This post, which does not require confirmation by the Senate, has been named by the US President since the creation of the bank after the Second World War. This sowed consternation among the other members of the bank, who felt that the presidents of the institution should be selected from a larger pool of candidates.

The challenges to practice have never come to fruition, although in 2012 a number of alternate candidates were proposed. , including Nigeria and Colombia. Obtaining information about President Barack Obama's presidential candidate, Kim, was tantamount to a showdown.

While the Trump administration was reviewing the candidates, officials discretely appreciated the support of its board of directors in order to ensure that a serious challenge could be overcome, according to one no one familiar with the effort. The White House believes that European countries will support Malpass, which would complicate the task of other countries.

The process of selecting the administration was led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, with the contribution of Ivanka Trump.

During the selection process, several candidates had an interview with the president. Among those considered were Pepsi's former chief executive, Indra Nooyi, and Heidi Cruz, a former chief financial officer and wife of Texas senator Ted Cruz. The two would have been the first woman to hold the position of president of the bank.
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