This is the man that NY scum "framed" and is trying to destroy, for obvious reasons - the new "SDR" initiative which will change the currency mix and removing the status of the US dollar as the single reserve currency.
It is obvious that his leadership and the envisioned changed where detrimental to the US and the US Dollar - therefore he was "framed" with outrageous claims against him. It is obvious some one "very high up" wants to stop this in its tracks. From recent speeches by US Treasury officials it is not difficult to guess who and why.
At the IMF, DSK was seen as effective and flexible, an improvement on the previous two heads who were widely perceived to have been less knowledgeable about policy and less skillful politically. He succeeded former Spanish economy minister Rodrigo Rato, who had cut his tenure short by two years in the middle of the institution's biggest shake-up in a generation.
"It wasn't hard to improve morale at the fund after Rato," says someone who worked with Strauss-Kahn in Washington, but who would not be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media. "DSK seized the opportunities offered by the crisis, seeking recapitalization of the Fund swiftly."
"He is extremely intelligent, articulate and convincing," a third European official told Reuters. "He had the ear of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and kept IMF staff and the IMF board in line."
Another, more senior euro zone source said that Strauss-Kahn would sometimes "kiss off a subject, without dwelling on it too long." At first glance, "that could be seen as arrogance, but in fact, it is because he has already gone over it in his mind and does not want to waste more time on it while others were still thinking."
Former German official Stefan Collignon believed Strauss-Kahn "was at his best" at the IMF. "He clearly is a genius in getting economics and policy together. He could have made a huge contribution to the world if he had become president, which seems unlikely unless he is cleared by Friday."
Strauss-Kahn sometimes seemed to revel in pushing boundaries. "There is a difference between seizing opportunities and taking risks," said the former Washington colleague, who is clearly a fan. "What I have always noticed about him is that he opens a lot of doors ... himself, he creates opportunities and then he decides."
At Davos in 2008, Strauss-Kahn laid out the case for a Keynesian fiscal stimulus to avoid a meltdown. Former White House economic adviser Larry Summers said at the time it was the first time the IMF had ever said anything like that. "DSK had seen the reports from (chief economist) Olivier Blanchard and he understood the links between the financial sector and the macroeconomy," says the former colleague.
When Strauss-Kahn pushed the case for stimulus at the G7 that same year, "he was attacked by everyone," said the former colleague. "The Europeans told him 'you don't understand our economies as well as we do.' He replied 'I don't understand your individual economies but I understand the world economy and the externalities, that's what I can give you.'"
"If taking a risk is telling people what they don't want to hear, then yes he was a risk-taker. Once his economic analysis is in place, he speaks his mind."
reuters.com |
