'World Bank' Bidding Starts at 30 Cents on eBay

Link : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=4&u=/nm/20041004/od_nm/bank_dc


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Not much sells for 30 cents in 2004. But for a fleeting moment, any bidder on eBay could have had the World Bank (news - web sites) for that paltry sum.



Activists put the global lender of last resort on the eBay block on Friday, saying it was being sold "by the people of the world at no reserve in hopes that its purchase will put an end to the World Bank's antiquated model of predatory economics and destructive development."


The "World Bank" in the auction was actually a globe.


Its condition was dubbed "antique" and shipping "could be expensive, damage the environment and rely upon sweat shop labor," the auction description said.


There were no bidders before eBay Inc. yanked the auction from its site, saying sellers cannot sell something they do not own.


The seller, Basav Sen, is a coordinator for anti-globalization group The Center for Economic Justice. He said the auction was meant to call attention to what he called "60 years of failed policies ... that erode human rights and environmental standards."


Sen is among the hundreds due to protest the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (news - web sites) meetings in Washington on Friday.