Current Events Quiz

Good morning! It’s Friday, which means that it is a perfect day to start with a pop quiz! Here you go:

[The administration official] apologized for his role in [the inappropriate dealings] to a few hundred staff members assembled in the … atrium, only to be greeted by booing, catcalls and cries for his resignation.

Is this:
A. Attorney General Gonzales discussing the recent firings of the US attorneys.
B. Paul Wolfowitz discussing the hiring of his lover by the State Department.

“In hindsight, I wish I had trusted my original instincts and kept myself out of the negotiations,” Mr. Wolfowitz said.

Mr. Wolfowitz was talking about:
A. His aggressive pro-war stance in the lead up to the Iraq War.
B. An arrangement made for his love interest to transfer jobs and receive a pay raise to the tune of $193,590 from $132,660 (tax-free because of her status as a diplomat, and exceeding the salaries of cabinet members).

Extra credit.

What did the staff association at the World Bank say publicly about this issue:

A. It declared that it was “impossible for the institution to move forward with any sense of purpose under the present leadership.”
B. It provided a press release stating that “we trust in this administration’s track record for prompt and above-board responses to such questions in the past, and know that this will all be straightened out in due time.”

The World Bank has cojones? Who knew!

(If you don’t have a free NYT account, get a temporary one at bugmenot.com.)

Now, I'm going to spend the rest of the morning relishing the image of a roomful of bankers cat-calling and shouting down a speaker. I'll never look at a person in finance the same way again!