Monday 16 May 2011

Strauss-Kahn's perfect timing

Now, mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn is not someon you will find Capitalists defending in general. The communist Frenchman has a long hisotry of economic and political misjudgements. However, his arrest on Friday in New York is quite something.

At a crucial moment in the negotiations over further European bailout the key lead is gone. the IMF have bent over to help the EU, even though the EU has held tight onto its prinicples of keeping the Euro and avoiding default. In part, this has been thanks to the head of the IMF backing this unorthodox (read silly) strategy.

So to have the one of the lead actors incapacitated at such a key moment is intriguing. of course Strauss-Kahn was also going to stand for the French Presidency so he will have many enemies across the world - which does not mean that in the end, he is his own worst enemy after all.

His temporary replacement is an American with a background of working for JP Morgan. He is sure to have different views, although perhaps the needs of diplomacy mean that he won't be able to obviously change track on IMF policy too quickly; however, charges for Stauss-Kahn will mean Lipsky will get a more long-term shot at the job, certainly until new appointments in the new year.

Timing is everything and this timing sure seems 'odd', conspiracy theorists will have a field day but the key will be to see if there is any change to the terms of the Greek bailout - the more changes there are, the more suspicious I will become.

20 comments:

Electro-Kevin said...

Ah. The one-eyed trouser python.

Not even our cleverist economic journalists saw that one coming.

Dick the Prick said...

I hope she got paid well.

Bill Quango MP said...

Are you suggesting a CIA honey-trap in a New York hotel?

Dan Brown is typing away as we speak.
"The Da Vinci owed."

Anonymous said...

I'm loathe to indluge the conspiracy theorists but it does stink to high heaven.

Remember they smeared the crap out of Julain Assange with women claiming rape, when bluntly "he pumped and dumped" them.

James Higham said...

When it comes down to it though, buggery because one feels like it is bound to play into the hands of those who want you put away.

Old BE said...

@BQ "ROFL"!

It's all a smokescreen to give the tabloids something to talk about while the Euro collapses and the whole world economy takes another lurch downward :-(

Mark Wadsworth said...

Yeah! That's my kind of conspiracy theory! The maid was bribed to try and seduce him and then run away half way through (or something).

Anonymous said...

There was a comedy series on the lantern quite a few years ago, I think it was called Common as Muck, in it a bloke said to his late teenage so something like this, "Remember lad your brain should always control what is in your trousers and you will be OK, but if what is in your trousers controls your brain you have big problems. This applies here I think but, it is good maxim for lads on the razzle and City Mayors

Anonymous said...

Forgot Strauss-Khan had bit of a reputation according to the W@O

hatfield girl said...

Hard to believe he'd give such hostages to fortune (to coin a phrase); hard to think anyone would try such an outrageous frame-up either.

The Corriere della Sera is reporting that he checked out of the hotel at noon, went to lunch with his daughter, then took a cab straight to the airport. The police have now moved the time of the assault back by an hour.

Bill Quango MP said...

daily mail: 'He was a rutting chimpanzee': French journalist says she was raped by IMF chief

Reuters
* Oil slips, dollar strengthens against euro

{type type type...Pause..should Obama be a goodie or a baddie?...shrugs...type type..}

Anonymous said...

Certain ares of government will always inform you,"There is no such thing as coincidence"Looks like a random piece of luck for his adversaries?

Electro-Kevin said...

He refused to pay a bribe so he got taken to the cleaners instead.

hatfield girl said...

Bail refused. Remanded until 20 May.

measured said...

Better for him to pump than for the central banks to pump....

....in money as that may serve to slowly undermine the US's special position that they never have to pay back their deficit as they are the paymasters of the world.

John Grisham - The Banker.

CityUnslicker said...

intriuging day, he has form aplenty apparently - but I give little credence to people coming out of the woodwork years later (I want to stab Casear too etc).

NYPD seem pretty keen though and would they really spark an international incident unless they were really sure?

All is fari and love and war.

measured said...

Not wishing to prejudge, the NYPD seem so keen I am sure there was contact. It will come down to his word against hers. Anyway he missed the meeting. She might drop the charges. Remember even Achilles had a heel.

Anonymous said...

Now we await the inevitable announcement that kiddie pr0n was "found" on his laptop. Still he fared better than Dr Kelly for upsetting those behind Project for a New American Century.

andrew said...

Whether innocent or guilty, a lot of people are going to sound very silly.

I think this is one time the UK justice system has it better.

We would not have heard this level of detail, which does prejudice a fair trial, and we probably would have let him go home in the meantime, due to those european arrest warrants.

Back in the land of the frivolous, a quick look at google maps says it takes 1h 55m to get from the LSE to Harwich.

Old BE said...

"would they really spark an international incident"

Would the NYPD care? I have a feeling they are less sensitive to political correctness than our system would be.