In praise of Strauss-Kahn

Joseph Stiglitz wrote:

Strauss-Kahn is proving himself a sagacious leader of the IMF. We can only hope that governments and financial markets heed his words.

Stiglitz defends this conclusion by pointing out that:

The annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund was notable in marking the Fund’s effort to distance itself from its own long-standing tenets on capital controls and labor-market flexibility. It appears that a new IMF has gradually, and cautiously, emerged under the leadership of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Briefly put, according to Stiglitz, a Strauss-Kahn-led International Monetary Fund was beginning to abandon the neoliberal nostrums it promoted over the last decades.

Yet, Strauss-Kahn’s IMF generated a problem, according to Mike Whitney:

Strauss-Kahn had set out on a “kinder and gentler” path, one that would not force foreign leaders to privatize their state-owned industries or crush their labor unions. Naturally, his actions were not warmly received by the bankers and corporatists who look to the IMF to provide legitimacy to their ongoing plunder of the rest of the world. These are the people who think that the current policies are “just fine” because they produce the results they’re looking for, which is bigger profits for themselves and deeper poverty for everyone else.

Whitney continued by stating that:

There’s not going to be any revolution at the IMF. That’s baloney. The institution was created with the clear intention of ripping poor nations off and it’s done an impressive job in that regard.  There’s not going to be any change of policy either. Why would there be? Have the bankers and corporate bilge-rats suddenly grown a conscience and decided to lend a helping hand to long-suffering humanity? Get real.

Threaten the powerful…. There may be something to the conspiracy explanation of Strauss-Kahn’s current predicament.

Related articles

• VIDEO: Strauss-Kahn refused bail (bbc.co.uk)
• Inside Rikers, IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s New Jail Residence (newsfeed.time.com)
• Dominique Strauss-Kahn appears in New York court (telegraph.co.uk)
• Strauss-Kahn ‘Lover’ Accused Him of Power Abuse (newser.com)
• IMF briefed on Strauss-Kahn, to monitor situation (marketwatch.com)
• How Strauss-Kahn’s Scandal is Viewed in France (theworld.org)
• Dominique Strauss-Kahn Denied Bail [Update] (gawker.com)
• No bail for accused IMF chief Strauss-Kahn (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
• The Real Dominique Strauss-Kahn Story: We’re The Little People, He’s Not (outsidethebeltway.com)