World Bank President Opts for Turkey Dinner over Development Finance Conference

Today’s Washington Post reports that World Bank President Robert Zoellick cited “Thanksgiving plans” as his excuse for dropping out of the November 29-December 2 Financing for Development Conference in Doha, Qatar. This year’s American turkey-eating fest falls on November 27.

Zoellick’s snub is just one more indication that the economic needs of the developing world are being pushed to the back-burner in the midst of a global financial crisis that originated in the richest nations. According to a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies, U.S. and European governments have committed about $4.1 trillion to rescuing their own financial firms. That’s 45 times as much as they spent last year in development aid. In fact, the U.S. government’s $23.2 billion aid bill last year is far less than the $29 billion bailout for just one investment bank — Bear Stearns. And while industrialized nations pledged to increase aid pledges in September, all bets are off now that they are plundering their coffers to prop up their failing financial institutions.