U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker six months ago unveiled a bold plan to rescue Latin American debtor countries. Speaking at the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Baker called for $29 billion in new loans to these beleaguered borrowers. He hoped that about $20 billion would come from commercial banks; the World Bank would provide most of the remaining $9 billion.
Now the World Bank is accelerating its lending to meet the Treasury Secretary's goal. Last week the bank said it expected that by the end of June it will approve $2.8 billion in loans to...