The Financial Times is reporting that the Bush administration is attempting "to convene an emergency conference call of deputy finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations to discuss the crisis at the World Bank."
Membership of the G7: The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan. (Russia is a member of the G8, but its economy is considered too small to be part of the ultimate industrialized economy clique.)
Reports the FT:
U.S. officials want to reach over the heads of hostile board members and development ministers, to finance ministers, foreign ministers and even heads of government, in the hope they can be persuaded to over-rule their colleagues and agree to let Mr Wolfowitz stay.
Seems unlikely. But what this last-ditch desperation move to rally the true masters of the global economy really underlines is how much the world has changed. There's something quite parochial about a club that includes Canada, Italy and France, but not China, Brazil or India. The G7 is part of the old world order. It's high time for some fresh blood.
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