IMF: In NYC...Now Notorious"DSK"...Has Housing Problems.

LINK CHANGE/  1:30 AP Video Report/

    Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have found $1mn usd for bail...but he is finding it difficult to get a new home in NYC.
   The former head of the IMF hoped to move into a $14,000 per month apartment in the luxe Bristol Plaza that his wife found...on Manhattan's exclusive upper east side...after a judge allowed bail on charges of attempted rape of a chambermaid.
    But the news attracted a media chaos outside the building and residents objected.
    Police even had to put up barricades to hold back the TV crews and cameramen.
    DSK has been released from Rikers Island jail...and is living in a temporary apartment  in Lower Manhattan near Ground Zero...where he will be detained under armed guard.

IMF: "DSK" Under Suicide Watch; Maid Is "Scared"; 56% Of French Claim "Conspiracy"; Pressure Grows To Resign.

BBC/


   The shocking, sad and tawdry tale of powerful IMF chief Dominque Strauss-Kahn/ aka "DSK" charged with 7 counts of sexual assault against a maid in a posh NYC hotel...drags on.
    He has been placed under a routine "suicide watch" in a Rikers Island, NY cell.
   Meanwhile, the 32-year-old woman, a Muslim native of Guinea, West Africa and legally in the USA for 7 years, will testify against him but is "scared," her lawyer Jeffrey Shapiro says.
   Shapiro also said there was "nothing consensual about what took place in that hotel room" on 14 May. She denies knowing he was the powerful head of the influential $1 Trillion usd worldwide organization.
   Amazingly, a French opinion poll found 57% of those who replied believe Strauss-Kahn is the victim of a conspiracy.
     Philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, a Strauss-Kahn friend for 25 years, said: "I do not know... how a chambermaid could enter on her own the room of one of the most watched people on the planet, against the normal practice in most big New York hotels, which provide for 'cleaning brigades' of at least two people."

IMF/EUROZONE/BRASIL/POLAND: 17 May UPDATE: Strauss-Kahn's Arrest Feeds Need For IMF Chief Selection Change.

BLOOMBERG/ S. Rastello

   Brasil and other emerging economies have long been lobbying for more voice in selection of the IMF head.
    With the arrest of Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn for attempted rape, those efforts may finally come to fruition.
    Strauss-Kahn, a former French FM, was chosen to a five-year term in 2007 due to an informal agreement from the end of World War II...where a European heads the IMF...while an American leads the World Bank.
 “This event is likely to put into play the leadership and governance structure of the IMF in a dramatic and unanticipated manner,” said a former IMF official.
   “There’s going to be pretty frantic diplomatic agitation” if Strauss-Kahn resigns, said Nicolas Veron, senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economics research group. “It’s the first time that the competition is so internationally open.”

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that European leaders would propose a candidate to lead the IMF if Strauss-Kahn resigns. She added that “in the mid-term, developing countries have a right to the post of IMF chief” and that “in the current situation, when we have a lot of discussions about the euro, Europe has good candidates to offer.”
     Could Poland's Marek Belka be that candidate.?
     Polish central bank governor Belka is from Europe. He’d probably be backed by Germany. He worked at the IMF. And he's from an emerging market.
http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2011/05/16/polands-belka-ticks-many-boxes-for-new-imf-chief/ 

 NEW!!!: More candidates are mentioned To Succeed DSK:
   Turkey's Kemal Dervis, French FM Christine Lagarde, South Africa's Trevor Manuel, Mexico's Agustin Carstens and India's Montek Singh Ahluwalia...are briefly profiled.
http://en.mercopress.com/2011/05/17/potential-candidates-to-succeed-strauss-kahn-as-head-of-the-imf?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_content=main&utm_campaign=rss

EUROZONE / IMF: 16 May UPDATE: Dominque's Lawyer Says It Ain't So; France Defends Strauss-Kahn's Innocence Until Proven Guilty; Arrest Dismays Distressed Greeks; Bail DENIED.

 LINK CHANGE: NYTIMES

    A NYC judge has denied bail for Dominique Strauss-Kahn...on grounds that he is a flight risk.
    The shocking arrest of IMF head Strauss-Kahn in NYC for sexual abuse has also unnerved Greek officials.
    Strauss-Kahn was to attend a eurozone finance ministers meeting Monday in Brussels to discuss worsening debt problems there.
     Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, (pictured above) managing director of the IMF for the past 3.5 years, was arrested in NYC and accused of attempted rape and 6 other charges...5 of them felonies...against a 32-year-old chambermaid in the Sofitel hotel. The maid reportedly worked at the hotel for 3 years.
    He was arrested while boarding a plane bound for Paris.
    The French government has declared that he “is innocent until proven otherwise”.
    His lawyer and his wife have told the media that “his client will plead not guilty of the crimes alleged against him”.
     One observer described the 7 charges as..."the worst case scenario" for the defendant.
     Since he was in NYC on private business...there can be no immunity claim...say some experts.
    A police spokesman says the woman claimed she entered Strauss-Kahn's room at about 1pm when "...he came out of the bathroom naked, ran down a hallway to the foyer where she was, pulled her into a bedroom and began to sexually assault her, according to her account. She pulled away from him and he dragged her down a hallway into the bathroom where he engaged in a criminal sexual act, according to her account to detectives. He tried to lock her into the hotel room."
      The maid picked-out his photo and was treated for rape...with forensic DNA samples taken.

      Noted criminal lawyer Benjamin Brafman (above) said :"This battle has just begun." 
     Strauss-Khan has favored giving Greece another financial lifeline to prevent collapse...despite recently angering Greeks when he described them as being "in deep shit".
     In 2008, the IMF cleared the thrice married Strauss-Kahn of harassment and favoritism over an affair with a Hungarian economist colleague...calling it a "serious error of judgement".

     Now, another woman is claiming he sexually harassed her in 2003.

    French journalist/novelist Tristane Banon (below) told LE FIGARO that the episode occurred during an interview when she was just 22.
    She described Strauss-Kahn as a "rutting chimpanzee."

        What is it about these powerful silverbacks?
        All these new revelations are all too reminiscent of Italy's  pathetically lecherous old PM...Silvio Berlusconi...but allegedly...without consent!

PERU: IMF Chief Praises Garcia For 2010 Projected 5-7% Growth.

MERCOPRESS/      "Peru's economic policies enforced in recent years are correct, and that is the reason why the country survived the last international financial crisis without suffering great consequences” gushed IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn about President Alan Garcia's management. ”Peru's international reserves (of more than 35 billion US dollars) are extraordinary, and we estimate an economic growth of 5 to 7% this year; it is a high and significant figure," he went on.

EUROZONE: How The EU Got Into The Whole PIIGS Mess And How It Can Save Itself.

NYTIMES/ECONOMIX/  PETER BOONE AND SIMON JOHNSON/  DETAILED ANALYSIS/ "The problem this time is bigger. It is not only about banks; it is about the essence of the euro zone, and the political survival of all the public figures responsible. If Mr. Trichet and Mr. Strauss-Kahn were honest, they would admit to Ms. Merkel “we messed up — more than a decade ago, when we were governor of the Banque de France and French finance minister, respectively.” These two founders of the European unity dream helped set rules for the euro zone that, by their nature, have caused small flaws to turn into great dangers."

EUROZONE: Strauss-Kahn Elevates The IMF And Himself.

BASELINE SCENARIO/ Economist Simon Johnson/ OPINION/   Johnson calls the IMF’s Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the new Metternich because of his growing influence. Prince Metternich controlled countries before and after 1815, building a system that worked for his boss, the Austrian/Habsburg Emperor. DSK’s objective is to cast himself as the savior of Europe, starting with Greece.

BRASIL: IMF Chief Warns Of Asset Price Bubble.

MERCO PRESS/   IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn warns that Brasil, Indonesia and other emerging countries have a “real risk” of suffering an assets price bubble because of a too- rapid inflow of foreign capital.

Turkish Student Throws Shoe AT IMF Chief.

YOUTUBE VIDEO/ Flying Shoe Barely Visible/ 2:07/
A Turkish student threw his shoe at International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn while he was speaking to students in Istanbul ahead of the IMF's annual meeting. Other demonstrators unfurled a banner and chanted "go away IMF, you're stealing money," said Gillian Morris, a CNN intern who attended the session and witnessed the incident. Turkish security officers dragged the protesters out of the assembly hall.
Strauss-Kahn joked about the incident afterward but was not hit.

Meet The Main Money Man... At The IMF.

PBS.ORG NEWSHOUR/
Paul Solman interviews the IMF's managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn
ahead of the G-20 meeting in Pittsburg.
Strauss-Kahn likens the IMF's role to a fireman, only really needed when an emergency arises... but one that can makes its own rules about terms and reforms... because, after all, its the IMF's money!