The New Yorker reckons Timothy Geithner is a shoo-in as next president of the World Bank, making him its 7/4 favourite. But the New Yorker won’t take your money. Paddy Power will.
The online (and bricks and mortar) betting shop has opened its book on the race for next president of the multilateral lender with Larry Summers in the top slot. You can see a full list of opening odds after the break.
Source: Paddy Power
There is, famously, an unwritten Bretton Woods agreement that gives the World Bank job to a US citizen and the IMF to a European. After a lot of grandstanding on this issue the IMF job did indeed go to Christine Lagarde, then French finance minister, last year. Paddy Power called it right.
Those who say this paradigm should finally be broken by the World Bank will be pleased to see Paddy Power including candidates like Trevor Manuel of South Africa and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, sharing odds of 20/1 with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria.
Brazil does rather well in the Paddy Power stakes: as well as Lula, his predecessor Ferando Henrique Cardoso is apparently in the running at 80/1, as is Marina Silva, Lula’s former environment minister and presidential hopeful, at 100/1. She shares those odds with Britain’s Gordon Brown, ahead of laggards like Tony Blair (150/1).
Beyondbrics is not a betting person so it won’t be laying any money on this one. But if it was, it would go for an American. Not necessarily Summers, though. What about Jeffrey Sachs? And our tip for a real outsider: Raj Shah of USAID.
Related reading:
Guest post: Lula for World Bank, beyondbrics
Guest post: Don’t stitch up the World Bank presidency, beyondbrics
IMF: it’s Lagarde, says Paddy Power, beyondbrics
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