The World Bank scandal is a bad sign for the future of globalization

It’s never a good sign when a bank gets caught fudging its numbers, but the revelation of the World Bank’s manipulation of an influential index also highlights the challenge of forging a global consensus for the economy in the 21st century. The World Bank came clean last week after hiring an external law firm to investigate allegations that it had altered an index that measures the ease of doing business in member countries. Investigators found that Bank officials pushed the team developing the index to manipulate it in several cases, most notably to improve China’s place in the ranking.