For the first time, Britain overtook the United States as the biggest donor to the World Bank, a highly symbolic change given Washington’s traditional influence in choosing the bank’s president and charting its policies.

Bank officials said the change in rankings was partly due to currency swings, since the dollar has dropped in value against European currencies. But the willingness of the United States to cede its top spot was clearly the most closely watched element of the negotiations held here in Berlin.

“The U.S. is stretching; Britain is stretching,”  the bank’s president, Robert B. Zoellick (one of the view professionally competent members of the current Administration), said in a conference call with reporters. Britain, he said, has “the advantage of a stronger currency, the pound.”

Contrary to what most Americans think, American aid per head of population is paltry compared with the rest of the developed world.  

Epicurus might well point out that volume of aid does not guarantee effectiveness. Yes.  On the other hand he might also be worrying about the huge rise in population of increasingly affluent people throughout the world and the sharp rise in the price of all food .  So why , he would ask, does the US refuse to countenance family planning for those who want it so that we can stabilize populations and maybe reduce them somewhat, thus relieving the pressure on the planet’s resources?

The answer is perverse religious doctrine.