Is US Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?

Republican presidential hopeful Texas Governor Rick Perry who was taking part in a Republican primary debate says, Yes, it is..

Rick Perry said: “It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you’re paying into a program that’s going to be there,” Perry said during a Sept. 7 debate of the Republican presidential candidates, reprising a theme from his 2010 book “Fed Up.”

Experts on both Ponzi schemes and Social Security say Perry is wrong. “Ponzi schemes are, by definition, fraud,” said Mitchell Zuckoff, author of “Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend.”

“Social Security is above board,” he added. “We can argue about whether it’s a good system. But you can’t call it a fraud.”

More of this article on Bloomberg

A Glimpse into the Future City State

"The Global Fair and Festival 2009" has opened in Songdo International City in South Korea's Incheon Free Economic Zone.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the country's largest festival President Lee Myung-bak said:

"The past century was dominated by a competition among nations, but we will see fierce competition among cities in the years ahead. More than half of the global population is concentrated in urban areas and the figure is expected to surge up to 80 to 90 percent," Lee said.


During the 80-day festival, 68 exhibitions, conferences and concerts will be held.

About 20 international conferences will be held at the fair, including the Global Environment Forum 2009, which U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and many other scholars plan to attend.

The Fair will introduce "Smart City," a knowledge-based industrial city equipped with state-of-the-art information and communication infrastructure, to the participants of the Asian-Pacific City Summit (APCS) to be held in September


Link.

C K Prahalad: Rising Indian thinkers

C K Prahalad, India-born management guru and academician, has been voted the world's most influential living management thinker ahead of hands-on managers like Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan and Richard Branson.

C.K. Prahalad is Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Corporate Strategy and International Business at the University of Michigan Business School. The recipient of the Global Indian Award from the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence, Prahalad is a globally recognized business consultant. His groundbreaking article, “The End of Corporate Imperialism," won the 1998 McKinsey Prize as the year’s best Harvard Business Review article.

Prahalad, who is the first Indian-origin thinker to claim the title, was ranked number three in last year's Thinkers 50 list brought out by Suntop Media. The Thinkers 50 2005 was developed as a guide to which thinkers and ideas are currently having greatest impact in business.

"Best known for his work 'Competing for the Future' with Gary Hamel (ranked 5th) on resource-based strategy, which gave rise to the term core competences, more recently, Prahalad has turned his attention to the plight of the worlds poor," said Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove of Suntop Media.

In his book "The Bottom of the Pyramid", he argues that capitalism can be the engine to eradicate poverty.

“If we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden, and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs, a whole new world of opportunity will open up,” he explains.

In economics, the bottom of the pyramid is the largest, but poorest socio-economic group. In global terms, this is the four billion people who live on less than $2 per day, typically in developing countries. The phrase “bottom of the pyramid” is used in particular by people developing new models of doing business that deliberately target that demographic, often using new technology.

YouTube debates setting new trend

Presidential debates is a long tried ritual in the United States of America, the world's trend setting democracy.

It is no longer a guy in a suit who mostly asks predictable questions of other suits in a carefully choreographed studio. The voter is a fixture in the audience, motionless until he or she gets to address the candidate, briefly and respectfully. It a is well designed PR stunt.

Now technology has come forward and is helping to change this old tradition. The debates still continue but the old world methods and the new world tactics have begun to overlap each other. In the new world, a kid in jeans and a T-shirt is asking questions, less reverentially, more pointedly and using powerful visual images to underscore the point.

The current presidential debates are about to enter the world of YouTube, the anything-goes home-video-sharing Web site that puts the power in the hands of the camera holder.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, and CNN are co-sponsoring a debate among the eight Democratic presidential candidates on July 23 in South Carolina, an event that could define the next phase of what has already been called the YouTube election, a visual realm beyond Web sites and blogs.

This proves that it is good for democracy when the people are empowered. Politicians often find that the people whose vote they need to come into office are much smarter than the political consultants and the men in grey suits( also known as spin doctors)- whether it is about Iraq war or global warming.

South African fruit picker faces British retail Giant

Tesco, Britain's largest retailer of grocery and general merchandising is far removed from the world that Ms. Gertruida Baartman lives in South Africa. Baartman as a friut picker in South Africa is at the bottom of Tesco's lengthy supply chain.

At the annual general meeting this year, while those at the top of the business are trying to persuade shareholders that Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy should receive an extra £11m if its venture into the US succeeds, the 39-year-old single mother of three often does not have enough money to feed her children, let alone afford the prices that Tesco charges UK consumers for the fruit she picks.

Ms Baartman came to the company's annual meeting, thanks to ActionAid, an international anti-poverty agency, to plead with the board to pay her and her co-workers a living wage.

"Tesco should ensure that we have enough to live on. We are not asking for luxuries, just to be able to live without borrowing, and to respect the rights of women because we really work hard, they must give us what we deserve," she said yesterday.

The farm where she works supplies one of South Africa's largest fruit exporters, Capespan, which last year saw a 122% increase in profits after tax.

At Tesco's AGM this year, shareholders have been asked to support a resolution demanding that Tesco takes measures - to be independently audited - to ensure that workers "are guaranteed decent working conditions, a living wage, job security, freedom of association and of collective bargaining including ... the right to join a trade union of their choice".

This is a case of ethical trade in action. “Ethical trade” is an umbrella term for all types of business practices that promote more socially and/or environmentally responsible trade.

Tesco is a member of the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative). Founded in 1998, the ETI aims to improve working conditions within a retailer's suppliers, through guidelines which members must incorporate into their codes of conduct. But the code is voluntary and members can be suspended or expelled only for non-compliance.

Cold War between Manchester United and Chelsea

An interesting article in the BBC carries the title, "The Glazer family v Roman Abramovich."

Manchester United have won over Chelsea in the English Premier League, an event being referred to as the English football's own version of the Cold War.

American-owned Manchester United has fought with Russian-backed Chelsea in a conflict full ideological differences and tension reminiscent of the superpower rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union.

The United States has the capitalist economy and a free and open society while the Soviet Union was the one-party communist state with a controlled economy.

These differences are apparent in the style of management between American Glazers who own the Manchester United and the the tighter control imposed by the Russian Roman Abramovich over Chelsea.

Both owners are out to make money using the EPL as a robust product. The American approach of supporting one of the best football manager's with the financial resources and trusting him to do the job has won the day.

Chelsea's uninspiring football played with ruthless efficiency has lost out in the battle of winning the hearts and minds of passionate supporters.

Chelsea's stars woes

Chelsea's manager Jose Mourinho is putting up a brave face. With Chelsea's loss to Liverpool last night at Anfield, Chelsea has been eliminated from the European Championship.

Liverpool have vanquished Jose Mourinho again and have booked a place in their seventh European Cup fnal. This is a soaring triumph for Liverpool and the Anfield faithful exploded with joy.

Chelsea's grasp on the English Premier League also looks out of their reach when they were held to a draw by Bolton last Saturday, on a day when rivals Manchester United won emphatically over Everton extending their lead at the top.

There has been talk of tension between the Russian billionaire Abramovich and his Portugese manager Mourinho all season. Losing the European Championship that the Chelsea owner craves most doesn't make Mourinho's job easier who already has enough problems of player injuries .

Chelsea's high-profile players have not delivered the results yet.

There were reports that Ukraine striker Shevchenko had refused to travel to Anfield after being told by manager Jose Mourinho he would not start the game, but Chelsea insisted the player was injured and played down rumours of a rift with the manager.

Another star player midfielder Michael Ballack, has reacted furiously at suggestions that he was putting Germany's international matches in June ahead of his club's end-of-season games.

Chelsea has star power, but as a team they haven't got the best out of the rich talent available. Under pressure Chelsea has crumbled to Liverpool, dashing their hopes of glory in Europe.

Meetings

Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then the people who disagree come to think they have a right to be persuaded. However, they are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

John Kenneth Galbraith

Brian Lara departs a flawed genius

Over a career that spanned 17 years, Brian Lara has been a batting supremo of mesmerising charm who has entertained crowds on the world stage of international cricket.

To many of his fans and cricket lovers, the end came too soon when a terrible mix-up with Marlon Samuels limited Brian Lara to just 18 in his final international innings yesterday.

With a Test average of 52.88 from 131 matches and an ODI average of more than 40, Lara has done enough to look back with pride on a glorious career.

Lara who came into the West Indies team in the early 1990s, when there were still great cricketers, has been criticised as setting the wrong example. The West Indians' practices, according to observers, have been the shoddy and undisciplined consequences of late-night partying.

With Lara's team already out of the world cup, Lara has been roundly criticised during this World Cup campaign, with legends of the past dismissive of both the team's performances and preparation.

Lara has captioned his team thrice and few have made the game look better than he did. For better or for worse, no one else has shown such individual brilliance in a team sport.

Cheers to Brian Lara.

Does globalization level the playing field?

In the olden days, daring explorers set sail across the vast oceans of the sea in search of gold, spices or in the quest to expand their imperialistic powers.

These travellers came to the realisation that there was no edge at the world. It was false to believe that they will to fall into an abyss of darkness. Indeed they proclaimed that the world was round and you can go around it.

Centuries later, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who is a contributor to The New York Times has proved otherwise: the world is flat.

We are told the world has changed and with it everything else continues to change. So were the early explorers flat wrong?

In his thought-provoking book 'The World is Flat' Thomas Friedman reveals the maddening changes that the modern society is going through.

It is the globalization: the global connectivity, integration and interdependence in the economic, social, technological, cultural, political, and ecological spheres.

Friedman employs the metaphor of the flat world to describe how globalization—taken up to an almost sky-scraping height and down to an even more unimaginable depth—has levelled the “playing field.”

Friedman believes the world is flat in the sense that the competitive playing fields between industrial and emerging market countries are leveling. Friedman recounts many examples in which companies in India and China are becoming part of large global complex supply chains that extend across oceans through a process called outsourcing, providing everything from service representatives and X-ray interpretation to component manufacturing.

He recalls seeing such major American companies as Dell, AOL, and Microsoft using Indian teleoperators who are paid much less than their counterparts in the West. He describes how these changes were made possible through intersecting technologies, particularly the Internet, fiber-optics, and the PC.

Some opponents of globalization see the phenomenon as the promotion of free trade and corporate interests, their primary motive being to increase profit rather than creating jobs for a self-fulfilling life style.

The eighteenth century economist Adam Smith who propagated the idea of free trade spoke of “laissez-faire” economics in his book 'The Wealth of Nations.' He taught that privatized business and trade promotes more economic activity than state controlled business and thus could provide even more money from the state through the collection of income taxes.

Smith's market economics theory does not guarantee jobs or a middle-class society. Free trade lies in the principle that if trade is free, certain goods and services can be obtained at lower cost abroad than if domestic substitutes are produced in their place.

Smith's market economics has worked for the past 200 or so years in the US and the free world. The collapse of communism has added momentum to the global trend toward free trade and free markets.

During the 1990s governments across the world embraced free-trade policies, including countries that once belonged to the communist bloc, such as Russia, Poland, and China. By the early twenty-first century free trade had emerged as a cornerstone of the new global economy.

But past performance is no guarantee of future performance. The pace of change in technology is accelerating, and the economic issues and problems that result from new and unexplored territory.

Even in a flight of imagination, would Smith have envisaged the transformation that we are going through now, from blue-collar workers to knowledge-workers?

In the 21st century a new debate is raging on the benefits and the downside of globalization even while we are still on the trail of the holy grail shown to us by Smith's division of labour that is so important for production in a free market.

As Peter Drucker describes in his ' Post-Capitalist Society,' every few hundred years a sharp transformation affects the society we live in.

According to Drucker, we are right in the middle of another time of radical change, from the Age of Capitalism and the Nation-State to a Knowledge Society and a Society of Organizations.

The primary resource in the post-capitalist society will be knowledge and the leading social groups will be "knowledge workers." This transformation profoundly affects our society - its worldview, its basic values, its business and economics, and its social and political structure.

It's time to look beyond Smith's free market to solve our current problems of wealth creation, wealth distribution and a sustainable environment.

In historical terms, globalisation does provide the best reach and the maximum opportunities to solve our social problems.

Will it emerge as a level playing field? The jury is still out on this question for we have a long way to go.

Teamwork does great for Man Utd

The smiles confirm the story as Wayne Roony celebrates Michael Carrick's second goal of the night when Manchester United thrashed Roma 7-1 in front of a full house crowd at Old Trafford.

"This will go down in the history books as one of Manchester United's best European performances," said Graham Taylor the Former England manager.

Ferguson hailed the victory as their best ever - a fantastic performance by every one of their players he said.

Roma coach Luciano Spalletti was at a loss to explain what happened to his side who had a 2-1 advantage from the first leg, coming into this game.

The Red Devils were firing on all cylinders, Ferguson's line-up having paid to its maximum potential.

Portuguese international Cristiano Ronaldo proved that the great form he is showing in the English Premier League is no mere coincidence. He played an important part to set up two goals and scored two himself.

This was a demolition that Roma or anyone else never expected.

Genteel cricket's dark side

A Pakistan cricket fan pays tribute to Bob Woolmer, in Pakistan's final game which they won and dedicated to their late coach. photo AFP


The cricketing world is horrified to hear that the Jamaican police are treating last Sunday's death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, the former Kent and England all-rounder regarded as one of the game's finest coaches, as murder.

Pakistan as one of the strong contenders to make the last eight, was ijected out of the tournamnet by debutant Ireland last weekend and angry fans took to the streets of the cricket-crazy Pakistan. This defeat was one of the biggest upset in the history of the 32- year old cricket tournamnet.

Emotions ran wild and Pakistani fans burnt coach Woolmer, 58, and captain Inzamam ul Haq in effigy. Hours later, the team's coach, was found dead in his Jamaican hotel room.

Now the police suspect foul play. A massive murder hunt is on in order to find out the perpetrators of this heinous crime. There was no forced entry into Woolmer's room and there is speculation that Woolmer was about to expose a match-fixing scandal. Stories about five bookmakers who have flown from the cricket-crazy sub-continent to Jamaica have also emerged fuelling conspiracy theories about the motive of the gruesome murder. The rumour mill is running on overtime last five days.

A former Scotland Yard detective is leading the investigation for the Jamaican police.

A devastated widow Jill described Woolmer as "a wonderful husband and a great father." She said Woolmer had a cheerful nature and a positive outlook on life and had a never-give-up attitude.

Speculation is rife that Woolmer's murder was the result of information he had on the mafia-style industry that makes billions of dollars from betting on international cricket matches. He was eliminated before he could blow the whistle.

The gentleman's game of cricket that the English introduced to its former terrories has lost its soul some time ago. The cricket's governing body the International Cricket Council, the ICC has not been able to clean up the corruption which has mired the game. Big money in the dark underworld of gambling and betting has also haunted this game. Nationalistic fervour and unfounded passion has made this game to be worshippied as a quasi-religion in the sub-continent.

It is time to do a reality check. The ICC president and others have said that the world cup should continue, for a disruption would send a signal of weakness to the criminals. So the world cup of cricket should continue for what it is worth. But has the ICC and others explained the worth of this sad spectacle? Is it worth the life of a human being, be it a coach, player or anyone else? Those who have the responsibility to run this sport have failed to provide adequate security to avoid such a tragedy, knowing very well that top players have been involved in match fixing in the past.

The game cannot be bigger than the life of a single individual. It is time for the organisers of this event to take a step back and put their house into order making sure that criminal elements have been rooted out. Woolmer's death has put a dampener on the World Cup, which will always be remembered for an awful tragedy.

Cricket has lost a sporting hero and and innovative coach.

Tributes flow for Bob Woolmer

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer died on Sunday, a day that the cricket-crazy Pakistani fans were baying for his blood after the shocking elimination of Pakistan from the cricket world cup. Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room just hours after his team suffered a shocking loss to rank outsider Ireland.

Mass outrage at the loss in Pakistan overnight soon turned to mourning when team officials announced Woolmer, 58, died within an hour of being rushed to University Hospital in Jamaica.

Commenting on Woolmer's death Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Naseem Ashraf said, "He was a thorough gentleman who instilled team spirit in the team. He was a very popular personality in our cricket team."

Former Pakistan cricket captain turned politician Imran Khan has said that Bob Woolmer died just because of the team’s loss against Ireland. Imran Khan blamed the captain Inzamam-ul-Haq squarely for the loss. He said Woolmer had played his part but it was uninspirational leadership that brought the defeat.


Inzamam-ul-Haq, visibly distraught after Woolmer's death, has announced his retirement from one-day cricket and resigned as Test captain. He took responsibility for the team's loss.

The passing of Bob Woolmer in Jamaica has cast a sad shadow over the 2007 Cricket World Cup . Tributes have poured in from all across the cricketing world. Read them here.

Irish march on St. Patrick's Day

The Irish cricket contingent at the Caribbean started the festival of St. Patrick's day, the anniversary to honour saints' deaths by crashing Pakistan out of the world cup.


Cricket is a quasi-religion in the Indian subcontinent. The day Pakistan was demolished by Ireland was also the day India lost to a weaker team, Bangladesh playing to its full potential.

The cricket mad nation of Pakistan is in mourning and the jury is out to decide the fate of the coach and the captain. Pakistan's captain, the affable Inzaman-ul-haq's illustreous career may be brought to an end. There will be no shortage of public opinion about the ineffective Packistan Cricket Board. Heads will certainly roll and discipline will have to be restored before fortune will bring back the past glory.

Knives are being sharpened in India whose fanatic cricket supporters see their team's back against the wall after their shock defeat to Bangaldesh. For India to advance to the knock-out phase it has to beat Bermuda on March 19 and Sri Lanka on March 23.

India knows beating Sri Lanka will not be a walk in the park. Rahul Dravid and co will have to pick themselves up and get the job done while millions are praying for their success.

Gates calls for greater accountability

Washington Post broke the story of revelations about problems at the US top medical hospital, where wounded veterans get long-term care, and heads have started rolling on. Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered neglect, bureaucratic intransigence and infestations of rats, cockroaches and mould, it emerged.

Robert Gates, Mr Bush's new Defence Secretary, won considerable praise for the swiftness with which he demanded accountability - and a resignation letter Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey has abruptly resigned on Friday, the latest fallout from the Walter Reed outpatient housing scandal.

In the past, when scandals broke out such as the torture in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Mr. Gates' predecessor Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Department did its best to stop potentially incriminating information from coming out and only low level officers paid the price. Although the problems with the medical facility have been insidious, Robert Gates determined leadership will help to restore the shaken public confidence.

Wealthiest Nations not so child-friendly

According to a United Nations report, the United States and Britain are at the bottom of a U.N. survey of child welfare in 21 wealthy countries that assessed everything from infant mortality to whether children ate dinner with their parents or were bullied at school.

The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top of the rankings. According to the study, children fared worse in the U.S. and Britain — despite high overall levels of national wealth — because of greater economic inequality and poor levels of public support for families.

One of the studies researcher, Professor Jonathan Bradshaw of social policy at the University of York in Britain said that both United States and Britain did not invest as much in children as continental European countries do.

"What they have in common are very high levels of inequality, very high levels of child poverty, which is also associated with inequality, and in rather different ways poorly developed services to families with children," said Bradshaw.

The combination of a high rate of single mothers in both countries, and a decided lack in services to assist them has made it so that children often bear the brunt of inequalities and lack of effective social programs.

The world's wealthiest nation, the United States and Britain may not like the results. But the fact remains that the US and the UK have some serious work to do on child poverty.

In general, northern European countries with strong social welfare systems dominated the upper half of the rankings. Southern European countries, such as Spain, Italy and Portugal, ranked higher in terms of family support and levels of trust with friends and peers.

Australia's green idea

The Australian government has announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country.

Australia is enacting legislation that calls for the standard household bulb, the incandescent, (which wastes 95% of the energy it uses), to be phased out within three years.

In what will be touted as a world first, this effort to phase out the standard incandescent light bulb demonstrates Australia’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Federal Government figures suggest energy used for household lighting in Australia contributes up to 12 per cent of coal-energy greenhouse gas emissions and around 25 per cent of emissions from commercial and public lighting.

It is felt the change to fluorescent lighting could cut greenhouse gas emissions by the order of 800,000 tonnes a year by 2012.

Environmentally, Australia has taken a step in the right direction. Get rid of the light bulb. What next for the sake of the environment!

Create your best team for success

Success in any business is not always attained individually. In fact, most of the time we achieve our successes as part of a team.

Great teams are the teams that are committed to excellence. In everything they do, their goal is to achieve at the highest level.

Their commitment is held throughout the team and at every level. A successful team cannot have members who are not committed to excellence because in the end they will become the weak link.

Employee involvement helps to create an environment in which people have an impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs.

Employee involvement and empowerment has become the new management and leadership philosophy on how people are able to contribute to continuous improvement and the ongoing success of their organization.

Some quotes on teamwork

1)Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.
-Andrew Carnegie


2)The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.
-Vincent Lombardi


3)The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
-Thoedore Roosevelt


4)The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses.
-Napoleon Hill


5)There is one rule for industrialists and that is: make the best quality goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.
-Henry Ford


6)Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More

Eto'o's ego got the better of him

Buddies again: Ronaldinha hugs Eto’o (back to camera) during Barcelona’s training session on Wednesday. The two had been caught in a war of words since Sunday. –Photo:Reuters

The Cameroon striker and Barcelona player Sameul Eto'o has created a row by blasting both his manager Frank Rijkaard and team-mate Ronaldhino and has revealed he would love to play for Arsenal.

After coming back from a 4 month knee injury, Eto'o was seen warming up but refused to come on when he was asked to do so with 5 minutes of play remaining in Sunday's match.

Eto'o, the top scorer in Spain last season, said: "I don't have to give any explanations to anyone. I will only give an explanation to the club if they ask me to."

Eto'o is sending the wrong message to many youngsters who may aspire to emulate his success. He owes an expalnation to his manager and since he is part of a team, he also has an obligation to his team mates.

In an attempt to close ranks, Barcelona haven’t punished Eto’o and the club is hoping that with the exchange of public hugs, the damaging rift has been diffused.

The top football clubs in the world are multi million dollar businesses and players face enormous competive pressure. Highly paid football agents scout for fresh talent and arrange to move players among clubs making the transfer market a lucrative industry.

With Eto'o publicly expressing discontent some of the super rich clubs like Chelsea and Liverpool may already be working to strike a deal with Barcelona n Eto'o.

World Bank can't stand transparency?

According to this Fox report,the World Bank which is on a global crusade to instill “transparency” in governments that receive its poverty aid is unable to accept the same standard of transparency for itself.

Paul Wolfowit is the president of the World Bank who 19 months ago, was U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary and one of the trusted member of the Bush team that raced for war against Saddam Hussein.

The perjury trial of Scooter Libby, the US vice president's former chief of staff has shown the world how selective leaks are given out to the media to further a cause. Leaking information to the media is nothing new in Washington.

Confidential boardroom information that Fox has obtained illustrates the explosive level of animosity currently focused on Wolfowitz and his management by the World Bank board.

At the heart of the world’s largest and most influential anti-poverty agency, which spends about $20 billion a year on aid, lies a deep-rooted problem of transparency -- a concept that Wolfowitz is aggressively trying to sell to the World Bank’s borrowers, who are mainly the world’s developing nations.

It appears that for most of its history, World Bank officials ignored complaints about corruption. The bank managers worried that confronting those involved in graft would be an improper intrusion into domestic af fairs of sovereign states.

Since the World Bank's challenge is to alleviate poverty, it must confront corruption head on, for corruption is a cancer and it must be rooted out. Only then can the full benefit of the bank's aid pass on to the most needy and empower the poor and help them to come out of the poverty trap.