The job description sounds enviable: president of a $300 billion-in-assets lender, no pesky Dodd-Frank constraints, extensive travel, frequent meetings with global leaders, photo ops with Bono and a tax-free salary of more than $400,000.

All true, yet there’s a curious lack of candidates to become the next World Bank president.

After Robert Zoellick announced last month that he would stand down when his term expires at the end of June, there was some immediate speculation that the Obama administration would nominate former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers or perhaps secretary of state Hillary Clinton for the post. Then, nothing. Radio silence. No hints from the White House. Even more surprising, no parade of contenders from emerging-markets countries asserting that it’s their time for the top job, as happened last year when Dominique Strauss-Kahn suddenly resigned from the International Monetary Fund. Officials say barely a peep was heard about the post at the G-20 meeting, normally a hotbed of speculation, in Mexico City late last month. Only one person — Jeffrey Sachs, the development economist who heads the Earth Institute at Columbia University — has formally declared his candidacy.....

Read More: World Bank · U.S. · emerging markets · Jeffrey Sachs