"One
must now fear that the emerging countries will conspire for the first time to
appoint a non-European to head the IMF. Out of self-interest alone, the E.U.
partners should at all costs try and prevent this by expeditiously agreeing on
a successor to Strauss-Kahn. ... An IMF chief accused of rape and having been paraded around in handcuffs by New York police officers is politically finished."
Dominique Strauss-Kahn looking tense at his bail hearing at New York State Supreme Court, May 19. After putting up $1 million in bail, a $5 million insurance policy promising that he wouldn't flee, and agreeing to video surviellance, electronic surviellance and an armed guard outside his door, he won release.
French Socialists are in
shock: After the arrest of Dominique
Strauss-Kahn, they have no one with the charisma of former finance minister
"DSK" capable of beating conservative Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012
presidential election.
But what hurts the Gallic Socialist Party
is hardly relevant to the rest of Europe. Nevertheless, the IMF chief's fall
from grace is of significance not only to the E.U. in general, but to the
heavily indebted in the south. In a way, this should even worry Sarkozy, who
just lost his most threatening opponent. Because every French president plays a
central role addressing the European Union's euro-crisis alongside the German chancellor,
(while Sarkozy is currently chair of the G-8 as well the G-20, the major economic
powers in the world).
Since 2008, during the global
financial crisis and the debt crisis in the Eurozone, DSK's Monetary Fund, in
conjunction with the European Central Bank, has developed an unprecedented economic
and political decision-making process. Without it, the Europeans would have
found it impossible to shoulder the billions in bailouts. Therein lays the
merit of the cosmopolitan Strauss-Kahn.
He effortlessly mastered a
balancing of cultural differences between Anglo-American-style bankers at the
IMF, traditionally focused on making brutal cuts, and the softer approach of
financial policymakers in Europe. This it was possible for Greece, then Ireland,
and now Portugal, to put in place restructuring plans that include social
cushioning for the most vulnerable and measures to stimulate jobs for the
young. Had it not been for the smooth cooperation of the E.U., ECB and IMF,
Europe would be far worse off than it is.
Strauss-Kahn proved himself
the ideal link for overcoming a very diverse set of problems. Now that the
situation in Greece is critical again, should he be incapable of acting, it
would hit Europe at the worst possible time. One must now fear that the
emerging countries will conspire for the first time to appoint a non-European
to head the IMF. Out of self-interest alone, the E.U. partners should at all
costs try and prevent this by expeditiously agreeing on a successor to
Strauss-Kahn.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
[Editor's Note: Since World War II, one of the more sacrosanct rules of the global economic order has been that an American runs the World Bank, and a European the IMF. But the sex scandal in New York involving now former IMF chief Strauss-Kahn may spell the end of that cozy arrangement, as the world economy shifts east. See video below].
Even if his fans continue to
summon up the presumption of innocence, as a known philanderer or dragueur
as the French say, he cannot be saved. An IMF chief accused of rape and having
been paraded around in handcuffs by New York police officers is politically finished.
The prediction of Libération journalist Jean Quatremer, who wrote
about DSK's appointment in 2007, has apparently come true: "The only
real problem for Strauss-Kahn, is his relation to women. Too forward, he often
brushes with harassment." In France, one might get away with that, but not
in an Anglo-Saxon institution in Washington. Game over.
After the flamboyant French, perhaps
a respectable German is in order: Peer Steinbrück.
He could start tomorrow. As a conservative former finance minister out of Merkel's grand CDU
coalition, he is well equipped to guide the IMF through troubled times. The
United States would undoubtedly accept him. And it would be a signal to the
Germans who are concerned about the strong euro.
![[Click Here for Jumbo Version]](http://arabnews.com/opinion/cartoons/article411108.ece/BINARY/large/0518Cartoon.jpg){kind=link}