Calm down, you World Bank bureaucrats. We have not allowed the news of your new boss to pass us by. As President Bush positions his nominee to run the Bank and European governments brace for the coming change, it’s difficult to see who comes out ahead in the transfer of power. One early winner is definitely the guy who’ll change the office nameplate, as they’ll merely have to scrape the “-ensohn” off the door and replace it with “-owitz.”

Yes, the World Bank will retain its lupine feel in the coming years with the news that Paul Wolfowitz will likely be the man in charge, ending some months of speculation as to who would take over. For the president and his backers, it’s a significant opportunity to continue the policy and philosophy consolidation that he’s put in place post-election. The appointment seems like a done deal, though there are governments concerned that Wolfowitz (at left) would use the position to simply serve as the United States’ “stooge.” Wolfowitz denies this charge, and, using words he learned for the very first time that day, vows to instead “pull together the strongest possible consensus” in order to get the Bank’s work done.

This ends what had been a dizzy few months of speculation over who would take to position, which had lately sort of disintegration into a lot of weirdness. For a moment, it seemed as if ousted HP head Carly Fiorina would be Bush’s choice — a deeply strange choice, indeed. Perhaps that oddest suggestion we heard for a possible World Bank leader was put forth by the Los Angeles Times, who endorsed U2 lead singer and sunglasses enthusiast Bono — who knows full well that debt relief is a critical need in the developing world. After all, that back catalogue isn’t going to sell itself. Bono has become something of a presence on the G8 circuit of late, talking up his organization Debt AIDS Trade Africa and lending these typically staid economic summits the sort of rock star cachet that everyone had hoped Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would deliver.