The IMF - classic or dud

http://homepage.mac.com/paynie/.Pictures/EMF.jpg

so, can anyone tell me what to expect here pls.

I haven't been keeping track, which benefits/public services do you have left to shred or sell off in exchange for your bailout?

well, even the opposition are now looking to privatise the healthcare system. There's a few semi-states making money, they've also already been discussed as saleable sssets.

IMF's tough love requires lowering the standard of living for 90% of inhabitants of a country because it scares the shit out of them, so they will work longer hours for less pay, which, whether or not it fixes the fiscal problems, is so morally uplifting for a nation that the IMF beams warmly at the thought of it.

well yeah i'd considered today that at least part of its function is to terrify, the majority of the remainder is essentially as receiver to a country

When they tell you to sell the residential water services to private companies, riot.

im not sure, in all seriousness, where our group water schemes fit on that scale

They'll find some way to kick you in the collective ghoolies, I'm sure.

public transport, healthcare, infrastructure and employment west of the shannon will prove unsustainable.

Again, i'm not seeing a massive ideological difference here

Dominique Strauss-Kahn accused of sex attack on maid

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund and the man French Socialists hope will be the next occupant of the Elysée Palace, was arrested at JFK airport in New York on Saturday afternoon accused of a sex attack on a Times Square hotel maid earlier in the day.

He was taken off an Air France flight by officers from the Port Authority of New York and turned over to Manhattan police, according to a spokesman from the agency. Plainclothes officers boarded the flight at 4.45pm, moments before take-off, and took the 62-year-old out of the first-class cabin and into custody. He had been due to meet German chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday.

"It was 10 minutes before its scheduled departure," said John Kelly, a Port Authority spokesman.

There's a conservative ideological justification for his actions, I am sure of it.

No specific thread on this yet?

sarkorubbinghishandswithjoy.gif

http://slytom.fr/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/nicolas-sarkozy-scandale-hopital.jpg

Obviously this has big implications for the rest of the world too but DSK was basically the socialists' banker to defeat Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections.

I don't think so re. Sarkozy; his approval ratings are super low. He's going down no matter what, probably to Le Pen.

Sadly I don't think that's true. His approval ratings may be low but unless the socialists come up with a convincing candidate Sarkozy could be reelected just because he'd be considered the least worst by most voters. Like if Royal is the socialists' candidate, I don't know, I could see Sarkozy winning. Hollande has been making a good impression lately but I could def see him losing too. And so on with most PS candidates.

Not saying PS can't find a decent candidate but DSK was the clear frontrunner for the nomination and this can't be good for them.

Re Le Pen: even if Marine is packaged better than Jean-Marie, I'd guess a Le Pen vs Sarko second round would work similar to 2002 with the left reluctantly voting for UMP. Le Pen vs whoever the PS candidate is would be scary though.

Hollande over Le Pen seems pretty plausible, and he seems like the most plausible PS candidate at this point.

I gotta say that I find the charges against DSK pretty bizarre. How do you force someone to give you a bj? Unless he was armed (which seems really unlikely), the story as it's come out so far seems off.

Some people insinuate he might have been assanged by sarkozy.

i just looooooooooooooooool

jmdentand Jean-Michel Dentand
@
@martinblandry ça fait un peut Maid in Manhattan tout ça, mais version Lars von Trier
53 minutes ago

le zing

xpost
Does that mean she cut off his pen 14+1 ?

Stories of DSK being a 'sex addict' now proliferating. What a fucking waste

of.....what?

of sex?

...of a career

he's 62, bit late to describe hiw whole career as wasted imo?

yeah well, he would have been a shoe in for next year's presidential election for which he's been tipped for years so still enormous waste for him (and the socialist party, and the country IMO)

I just read about this, apparently this guy chased a maid down a hallway, cornered her in a room, and forced her to go down on him, then tried to lock her in the room. WTH posesses a person to think they can do shit like that!?

history

:(

does history offer any counsel to the poor schmucks who keep finding out over and over again that the elites are all cretinous monsters?

http://www.businessinsider.com/dominique-strauss-kahn-piroska-nagy-2011-5

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/4787020.bin

Satyriasis is a helluva drug.

Piroska Nagl

can't believe somebody from the IMF has been charged with raping an innocent victim

How do you force someone to give you a bj?

Sexual assault cases often involve this. One can force people to do all kind of things.

His approval ratings may be low but unless the socialists come up with a convincing candidate Sarkozy could be reelected just because he'd be considered the least worst by most voters.

I think basically that whoever gets into the second round will beat Le Pen; so Sarkozy either has to get more votes in the first round that Le Pen, or else get more votes than unnamed Socialist candidate.

If Sarkozy does not get through to second round (a big If, I suspect), then I reckon there is an outside outside chance of Le Pen beating a weak socialist candidate in the second round, if she is able to present herself in such a way as to attract enough rightwingers not to vote against her.

this is all somewhat off topic.

do we not have a French politics thread?

A year ago I was doing some work at the IMF. Entirely without prompting one of the regular employees described S-K to me as the hottest president the IMF had ever had. (This was after he'd been busted for having an affair with another IMF employee.)

That was my thought; but DSK isn't denying the charges, but rather giving as his defense "consent", a likely story.

Sarko's lackeys tweeted about it 13 minutes after it happened? Really? I find that hard to believe.

Heard some stupid French woman journalist interviewed on the BBC about this, she was all, oh but he's a ladies man (somewhat admiringly), "but sometimes the ladies are not so willing" *giggle* *giggle*. Idiot.

I think its possible that some people are just so powerful it doesn't occur to them that a mere hotel maid would dare to press charges. These people are cocks obviously.

Le Bateau Ivre - I've removed your link, seeing as it's the maid in question's personal Facebook page.

Doesn't surprise me that someone in Sarko's office would tweet about it 13 minutes after the arrest though.

Sarko's lackeys tweeted about it 13 minutes after it happened? Really? I find that hard to believe.

― The New Dirty Vicar, dinsdag 17 mei 2011 16:05 (6 seconds ago) Bookmark

Jonathan Pinet, a young UMP'er, tweeted this about the arrest 14mins after the arrest (according to Melty even shortly before the actual arrest).
Before the New York Post too, who was the first American news medium to break the news. Oddly enough the Post wasn't even the first, that was 24 Heures Actu, a right-wing conservative news blog.

Ok Matt no prob, apologies for putting it on here

Yeah I don't know - it is really hard to fathom that someone who lose it to such an extent, on the verge of running for the presidency, someone who's been promised a "shitfest" by his opponents once he would start campaigning and who a month ago told journalists he wouldn't be surprised to be accused of rape by a woman paid half a million to make up a story.

But still, his antecedents really give a lot of credibility to the accusations.

But still, his antecedents really give a lot of credibility to the accusations

The fact that he's a sleazeball you mean?

a month ago told journalists he wouldn't be surprised to be accused of rape by a woman paid half a million to make up a story

Getting his excuses in early then.

xp
no, the fact that he's been accused of sexual assault before (charges never filed) and numerous stories of sexual harassment circulating for years (but kept *hush hush* by insiders, as is the case for this stuff in France)

The Rutting Chimpanzee accusations

right

lol, maybe it's just the American in me but the above Tom D./baaderonixx exchange is hitting all of my "tomayto/tomahto" buttons (I have 4)

Ha ha

falling for the Tuomas trap, am I?

Nah, although it does look like Tom D is trolling just for lulz

Don't think describing DSK as a sleazeball is exactly trolling

"I just read about this, apparently this guy chased a maid down a hallway, cornered her in a room, and forced her to go down on him, then tried to lock her in the room. WTH posesses a person to think they can do shit like that!?"

Being horny and having no respect for women?

I don't know whether it's true or not. Fact is, career is over.

Newspaper here today claims the maid lives in a residence that's only for HIV patients, but privacy laws keep them from disclosing whether or not she's infected. Headline is still about how DSK could have AIDS now though. Le sigh.

Where is "here", StanM?

In my country persons alleging rape and people accused of it have anonymity, with the latter only being named if convicted. I think this is a good thing - it stops a vile media circus emerging around these kind of cases, though it does lead to slightly surreal cases like the one at the moment where a fairly prominent Irish figure has just disappeared from view while he is being investigated for noncecrime.

This has nothing to do with the IMF. Would it be worth having a separate thread for the DSK case?

Some people insinuate he might have been assanged by sarkozy.

― StanM, Sunday, May 15, 2011 5:44 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

sarkozy continued to have sex with DSK after he asked him to stop?

i will be tuning in for the debates if so

Here is Belgium, mr. Dirty Vicar. Xposts

Their source is the New York Post.

In my country persons alleging rape and people accused of it have anonymity, with the latter only being named if convicted. I think this is a good thing

OTM

the argument against anonymity for the accused is that a public accusation may encourage earlier victims to come forward

started a specific thread: The IMF - classic or dud

err, here rather: The Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair

you know, when I started this thread, I never thought that my stupid country would be taking a bailout loan from the IMF.

getting back to the original question, would countries in general (and Ireland in particular) be better off if there was no IMF to lend to them?

Lagarde faces an abuse of authority probe, a French court has decided.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14399227

They will keep giving the job to French people...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/us/after-protests-imf-chief-withdraws-as-smith-colleges-commencement-speaker.html?emc=edit_th_20140513&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=31119931

A week before she was to speak at the Smith College commencement, Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund, has withdrawn from the event, citing protests against her and the fund, the college said Monday.

...

“The I.M.F. has been a primary culprit in the failed developmental policies implanted in some of the world’s poorest countries,” said an online petition against Ms. Lagarde’s appearance at Smith, a women’s college. “This has led directly to the strengthening of imperialist and patriarchal systems that oppress and abuse women worldwide.”