BOOK REVIEW: A Global Life: My Journey among Rich and Poor, from Sydney to Wall Street to the World BankBy James D Wolfensohn Public Affairs, $29.95

THE PROBLEM with autobiographies is that the author has the high ground and can include or exclude events as he or she thinks fit. There are few objective criteria; we either believe the narrator or we do not. Historians rightly attach health warnings to autobiographies.

This book conveys a picture of a decent, productive man who grew up in Australia, studied business in Harvard and became a commercial banker. He then became an investment banker with experience in the City of London as well as on Wall Street, eventually set up his own boutique investment bank in New York and was ultimately called upon by Bill Clinton to head up the World Bank.

He was later sent as a peace envoy by the Bush administration to the Middle East where he was treated as something of a patsy by Condoleezza Rice.

The book is well-written and steers clear of jargon. Although there were other writers involved, it would appear that the tone and style are those of James Wolfensohn himself.

There are self-deprecating references, such as choosing the wrong wine in posh restaurants and being reduced to tears. Unfortunately, one can’t quite resist the thought these may have been put in to highlight the humanity of the man. The book frequently changes from work to family to music (he plays the cello) and philanthropy and back again. He spent an amazing time travelling to different parts of the world and usually brought his wife with him.

As a young man he had been on the Australian fencing team. He was clearly an all-rounder, once dubbed a “renaissance banker”. He was also called “the Elvis of economics” by Bono though he does not mention this in the book.

His work as a private banker was not very exciting as far as this reviewer was concerned, except for the period when he helped bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

His bank, Salomons, put together a rescue package for Chrysler which included a substantial contribution from US taxpayers, This suggests even in the 1980s, the capitalist model was not as pure as it pretended to be: when the chips were down, the taxpayer was called upon.

Oddly, there is no reference to financial innovation, risk or ethics – factors which would threaten the entire financial sector in 2007 and 2008.

The high point of his life was the 10 years he spent in the World Bank from 1995 to 2005. His interest in music led him to fundraise for Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Centre in Washington. This brought him into contact with the Kennedys and later Clinton.

The Wolfensohns and Clintons socialised together and often shared the same box in the Kennedy Centre.

Clinton offered him the World Bank job by saying, “What would you like to do at the bank?” Unfortunately, that is how the most important jobs in the world are filled. The author has nothing to say about this bizarre method of selection.

He insists that he was always interested in the development of the Third World. “My work at the Rockefeller Foundation and the Population Council had given me a deep and abiding concern for poverty and gender issues,” he writes. There is a hollow ring to this, though we should perhaps give him the benefit of the doubt.

He did shake up the World Bank, however, and called various independent fiefdoms to order. He was in favour of debt forgiveness and also worked on a more comprehensive approach to development which allowed room for the recipient countries to express their own cultural values. This comprehensive development framework downplayed the previous project-by-project approach and was perhaps Wolfensohn’s most important achievement at the bank. He also confronted the problem of corruption in partner countries head on, though he provides no evidence that he met with much success.

His approach to the bank staff seems inconsistent. On one page he praises them, but on the next, he accuses them of being bureaucratic and lacking idealism. Regarding the poor of the world, he does seem to have been at the humane end of the spectrum, but cynics might argue that one can afford to be humane when doling out money which comes from taxpayers.

The World Bank faces some intractable problems with which the author, unfortunately, does not deal. If it intervenes comprehensively in the affairs of a recipient country is it not open to the charge of neo-colonialism? This can be particularly sensitive where education is concerned.

Wolfensohn does not define what he means by poverty alleviation. Most people would hope that poverty alleviation would flow from development. But even if development does take hold, the benefits may not trickle down to the really poor at all. It depends on the policies of the recipient governments.

Since the top jobs at the bank are filled by the US president, what is to stop America using the bank for its own political ends?

Finally, although Wolfensohn may well have made a positive contribution to the World Bank, there is no data to show that poor countries developed during his tenure or to show that the distribution of income and wealth became less skewed in the Third World. Without such benchmarks, the jury will remain out.

It is a fairly interesting read. The main message is how far a well-rounded person can go when he or she is highly skilled at networking.

Michael Casey is former chief economist with the Central Bank. He is author of

Ireland’s Malaise: The Troubled Personality of the Irish Economy