Word: loans
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Department kept a nervous eye on the teleprinters as messages clacked in from U.S. outposts in the tense Middle East. State was braced for the possibility that Russia's Foreign Minister Dmitry Shepilov (see FOREIGN NEWS) would offer to sell Egypt arms, would offer Egypt a $1.3 billion loan-or a blank check-to build the Aswan High Dam, that Egypt's Premier Nasser would find it hard to turn down such easy and astronomical money (roughly half of Egypt's gross national product). State was concerned likewise that neighboring Israel might be fanning...
...still stood on its conditional offer to grant Nasser $56 million toward his dam (Britain is still ready to grant $14 million), to precede a World Bank loan of $200 million. The reasons were basic and simple: 1) the U.S. offer, with its businesslike requirement of a sound Egyptian fiscal system, was good for Nasser-and he knew it; 2) the U.S. knew full well that if Nasser accepted Russian easy terms he was bound to pay a heavy price in independence besides having a hard time laying his hands on the money-and presumably Colonel Nasser knew that...
...final communique was full of talk of mutual regard, but the dam was not mentioned. Suspicion is that Nasser recognizes that acceptance of a Russian loan would give Soviet Russia a decisive and unwelcome voice in Egypt's economy, but is not above trying to use Shepilov to pressure...
...World Bank started out with 38 nations (now 58), each subscribing loan funds ranging from $3.2 billion for the U.S. down to a minimum $200,000 for Panama. In a partnership of the world's "haves" with the "have-nots," all nations cooperated to run the bank through a board of governors, one member from each country, and a president, who has always been an American. Only member nations were allowed to apply for loans, and since voting strength was weighted by the size of each national subscription (the U.S. has a 30% vote), the U.S. and other like...
Blueprints for Nations. From the start, World Banker Black discovered that his job was far bigger than merely making loans. Some applicants had no clear idea of what they wanted the loan for. One early visitor informed Black that his country needed about $250 million. When asked how the money was to be used, he admitted that he had no particular plans. "We just wanted to get some of the bank's money before it was all gone," he explained. Those who did have specific projects rarely bothered to work out the economic details. Says Black: "It came...