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Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn Trying to Torpedo the Dollar?
Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn Trying to Torpedo the Dollar?
Courtesy of Mike Whitney
It's all about perception management. The media is trying to dig up as much dirt as they can on Dominique Strauss-Kahn so they can hang the man before he ever sees the inside of a courthouse. It reminds me of the Terry Schiavo case, where devoted-husband Michael was pegged as an insensitive slimeball for carrying out the explicit wishes of his brain-dead wife. Do you remember how the media conducted their disgraceful 24 hour-a-day Blitzkrieg with the endless coverage of weepy Christian fanatics on the front lawn of the hospital while Hannity, Limbaugh and O' Reilly fired away with their sanctimonious claptrap?
And now you're telling me that that same media is just "doing their job?"
Give me a break.
Whoever wants to nail IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has really pulled out all the stops. Their agents have been rummaging through diaries, hotel registries, phone records, yearbooks, yada, yada, yada. The UK Telegraph even paid a visit to a high-priced DC knocking shop to get a little dirt from Madame Botox; whatever it takes to make a randy banker look like the South Hill rapist. And they're doing a pretty good job, too. The cops have made sure that the "Great Seducer" always appears handcuffed and dressed in a "pervie" raincoat with 3-days stubble before they parade him in front of the media. On Wednesday--more grist for the mill--they released his mug-shot, an unflattering, deadpan photo that makes him look like Jack-the-Ripper. Was that the intention?
And, that's not the half of it. The Big Money is exhuming every woman he's ever had contact with for the last 30 years hoping they can glean some damning tidbit of information that will convince the doubters that beneath that sophisticated manner and $25,000 suit lurks a closet Bluebeard ready to snap up your daughters and defile your wives. Next thing you know, they'll be trotting out Paula Jones and Tanya Harding claiming they spent a torrid night with the Marquis de Kahn in a trailerpark outside Winamucca.
Where does it stop? Or does it stop? Are we in for another year-long Clinton-Lewinski feeding frenzy where everyday we hear more lurid details about the sexploits of people who don't really interest us at all?
Aren't you at all curious about who's behind this "lynching by media" scam? This is an all-out, no-holds-barred, steel-cage, take-down. The big boys save that kind of action for the worst offenders, that is, for the insiders who have broken "Omerta" or wandered off the reservation. I mean, they locked him up on Riker's Island without bail, for Chrissake. What does that tell you? Even Bernie Madoff was allowed to stay in his $7 million Park Avenue penthouse while he waited for trial, but not Straus-Kahn. Oh, no. He get's the royal treatment, even though he has no criminal record and nothing but the sketchy accusations of a chambermaid against him, he's carted off to the state slammer where he can mingle with hardened criminals while dining on corn flakes and Wonder Bread.
You call that justice?
Can I tell you what this is all about? It's about the dollar. That's right. Strauss-Kahn was mounting an attack against the dollar and now the wrath of the Empire has descended on him like ton-of-bricks. Here's the scoop from the UK Telegraph:
"Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has called for a new world currency that would challenge the dominance of the dollar and protect against future financial instability.....
He suggested adding emerging market countries' currencies, such as the yuan, to a basket of currencies that the IMF administers could add stability to the global system....Strauss-Kahn saw a greater role for the IMF's Special Drawing Rights, (SDRs) which is currently composed of the dollar, sterling, euro and yen, over time but said it will take a great deal of international cooperation to make that work." ("International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn calls for new world currency", UK Telegraph)
So, Strauss-Kahn finds himself in the same crowd as Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, right? You may recall that Saddam switched from dollars to euros about a year before the war. 12 months later Iraq was invaded, Saddam was hanged, and the dollar was restored to power. Gaddafi made a similar mistake when "he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar." ("Libya: All About Oil, or All About Central Banking?" Ellen Brown, Op-Ed News) Libya has since come under attack by US and NATO forces which have armed a motley group of dissidents, malcontents and terrorists to depose Gaddafi and reimpose dollar hegemony.
And now it's Strauss-Kahn's turn to get torn to shreds. And for good reason. After all, DSK actually poses a much greater threat to the dollar than either Saddam or Gaddafi because he's in the perfect position to shape policy and to persuade foreign heads of state that replacing the dollar is in their best interests. And that is precisely what he was doing; badmouthing the buck. Only he was too dense to figure out that the dollar is the US Mafia's mealticket, the main way that shifty banksters and corporate scalawags extort tribute from the poorest people on earth. Strauss-Kahn was rocking the boat, and now he's going to pay.
Here's a clip from CNN Money:
"The International Monetary Fund issued a report Thursday on a possible replacement for the dollar as the world's reserve currency.
The IMF said Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, could help stabilize the global financial system....SDRs represent potential claims on the currencies of IMF members.....The IMF typically lends countries funds denominated in SDRs. While they are not a tangible currency, some economists argue that SDRs could be used as a less volatile alternative to the U.S. dollar.
"Over time, there may also be a role for the SDR to contribute to a more stable international monetary system," he said.
The goal is to have a reserve asset for central banks that better reflects the global economy since the dollar is vulnerable to swings in the domestic economy and changes in U.S. policy.
In addition to serving as a reserve currency, the IMF also proposed creating SDR-denominated bonds, which could reduce central banks' dependence on U.S. Treasuries. The Fund also suggested that certain assets, such as oil and gold, which are traded in U.S. dollars, could be priced using SDRs." ("IMF discusses dollar alternative", CNN Money)
Wow. So DSK was zeroing in on US Treasuries as well as the dollar? That's the whole shooting match.
So, what type of progress was he making in converting USDs to SDRs? According to Reuters: "The IMF general resources credit outstanding increased to 65.5 billion Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, ($104 billion) on May 12 from 6.0 billion SDRs at December 2007. The so-called new arrangement to borrow, which came into effect on April 1, increased the IMF's available lending resources to 269 billion SDRs on May 12 from 120 billion SDRs on March 31." (Reuters.com)
Not a bad start for such an ambitious project. It looks like DSK's dream of dethroning the dollar as the de facto "international currency" was beginning to gain momentum. But didn't he know that his actions would anger some very powerful and well-connected people?
Well, if he did; he never let on. In fact, he started mucking around in other stuff, too, like when he intervened on behalf of Irish taxpayers, trying to protect them at the expense of foreign bondholders. That's a big "No no" in banker's world. They keep a list of "people who count", and taxpayers are not on that list. Here's an excerpt from the Irish Times:
"Ireland’s Last Stand began less shambolically than you might expect. The IMF, which believes that lenders should pay for their stupidity before it has to reach into its pocket, presented the Irish with a plan to haircut €30 billion of unguaranteed bonds by two-thirds on average. (Irish finance minister) Lenihan was overjoyed, according to a source who was there, telling the IMF team: “You are Ireland’s salvation.”
The deal was torpedoed from an unexpected direction. At a conference call with the G7 finance ministers, the haircut was vetoed by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who, as his payment of $13 billion from government-owned AIG to Goldman Sachs showed, believes that bankers take priority over taxpayers. The only one to speak up for the Irish was UK chancellor George Osborne, but Geithner, as always, got his way. An instructive, if painful, lesson in the extent of US soft power, and in who our friends really are.
The negotiations went downhill from there. On one side was the European Central Bank, unabashedly representing Ireland’s creditors and insisting on full repayment of bank bonds. On the other was the IMF, arguing that Irish taxpayers would be doing well to balance their government’s books, let alone repay the losses of private banks." ("Ireland's future depends on breaking free from bailout", Morgan Kelly, Irish Times)
So, Strauss-Kahn stuck up for Irish taxpayers over the banks, the bondholders, the ECB, and the US Treasury. Naturally, that made him persona non grata among the ruling throng.
And, there's more, too, because Strauss-Kahn's vision was not limited to currency alone, but involved broad structural changes to the IMF itself that would have reversed decades of neoliberal policies. DSK had settled on a new approach to policymaking; one that would abandon the worst elements of globalization and put greater emphasis on social cohesion, cooperation and multilateralism. Here's an excerpt from the speech titled "Human Development and Wealth Distribution" he gave in November 2010:
"....Adam Smith—one of the founders of modern economics—recognized clearly that a poor distribution of wealth could undermine the free market system, noting that: “The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful and…neglect persons of poor and mean condition…is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”
This was over 250 years ago. In today’s world, these problems are magnified under the lens of globalization....globalization also had a dark side. Lurking behind it was a large and growing chasm between rich and poor—especially within countries. An inequitable distribution of wealth can wear down the social fabric. More unequal countries have worse social indicators, a poorer human development record, and higher degrees of economic insecurity and anxiety. In too many countries, inequality increased and real wages stagnated—failing to keep up with productivity—over the past few decades. Ominously, inequality in the United States was back at its pre-Great Depression levels on the eve of the crisis....
An immediate task is to end the scourge of unemployment....Progressive taxation can also promote equity through redistribution, and this should be encouraged....“Inequality is corrosive” ....“it rots societies from within…it illustrates and exacerbates the loss of social cohesion…the pathology of the age and the greatest threat to the health of any democracy.” ("Human Development and Wealth Distribution", Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF)
Can you believe it? DSK is lecturing bankers about redistribution? That's not what they want to hear. What they want to hear is why ripping off poor people actually makes the world a better place. DSK's speech just shows that he wasn't drinking the Koolaid anymore. He was becoming a nuisance and they needed to get rid of him.
Does that mean he didn't rape the woman who was in his hotel room?
Of course not. In fact, he could be guilty. But he deserves a fair trial, and someone's making damn sure he doesn't get one.
Originally published at Global Research
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Poor reaction. Poor reaction does exist.
The first step of this man in his defense was to deny the possibility of the intercourse. Rather stupid as he knew he had one, no matter the nature of it. Yet he did that.
He is perfectly aware of the US sense of justice and knows it will be his credibility against her credibility. Which gives the conclusion of the trial by the way.
So phoning to get a cell back can be easily associated to a man who has nothing to reproach himself with. He did nothing wrong, evidence, he did not fear to call back his rape scene. Etc...This move built up his credibility.
This man knows the dance, the tune of dance and the musician. Expect him to play all the tricks possible.
no what's really useless is you dumb fucking arrogant americans and your evil fucking government
Just just joined the ESTA no no list!
Wait.
Yes. I was born in America. But...
I'm dumb? Like how, understanding how women think? Sure. Got me.
Or putting together a car engine? Got me there too, postafoa02.
Arrogant? Only when we talk of screenwriting ability.
Sure.
The American government is evil.
But it's not mine, dude.
Me thinks anger is your drug.
I just saw what what could have really been a good indie flick: Leaves of Grass, with Edward Norton x2. I can't stand Edward Norton and was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because the movie started out really interesting. (Oh, well. Fight Club. Ha!)
Then, of course, it all bogged down to Jew this and Jew that. Doesn't anyone outside of Hollywood understand that no one wants to hear that stuff? No one cares about this Jew or that Jew, yet every indie flick seems to have at least twelve references to Jew this or Jew that. Why? Do y'all think that us little people in fly-over country care who is a Jew and who isn't?
You want to have a good exercise in screenwriting? Get ahold of that script and strike everything that even remotely relates to Jews and see what you're left with. Then fill in the gaps with something much, much more interesting. Develop character through dialogue; explore the dichotomies of our world. Noodling catfish and Walt Whitman. Now, that's interesting.
Get rid of the Jews, for chrissakes! How many screenplays have you written that have some stupid Jewish undertone? Ach!
That is my rant. Thanks for sharing.
:/
I'd say if it were a take down, it was not for "our" Govt, I'd guess it was for Sarkozy, next best candidate conveniently in deep shit, humn. As I stated elsewhere, maybe it's not bankers against their "owned" but politician AGAINST THEIR MASTERS? Wouldn't that be interesting?
Go fuck yourself and your whore mother and reform your own shitty government
touche.
Death to froggies, kosher and non-.
and so the banksters are starting to eat their own.
Mish Shedlock is very angry this morning. He doesnt like that different ideas get floated and dissected on this site. I guess we're not supposed to have other than "follow the doctrine" opinions. And who's to decide what is and what is not conspiracy? Mish Shedlock?
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/05/conspiracy-garbage-on...
Poor Mish - I guess he's losing site hits and certainly numbers of comments. I used to go there daily, now once a week at the most. I just got sick and tired of his unyielding deflation mantra and refusal to acknowledge John Williams's work at shadowstats. His other topics (public unions, real estate bubbles in China, Canada, Australia..blablabla) have been sucked dry. The advantage at ZH is that the comments - bar the trolls - often provide as much or more insight than the postings.
Mike's comments on that thread are interesting. wonder how long they'll remain there.
Brutus fired Julius Caeser over his radical land reform policies. I believe that today he would only need to send the doppelganger call girl to do the job and at the same time be providing bread for the circuses.
'sup To...nice storms this week ya?
I think maybe the polictcal class are eating their masters.
I'll believe that when Lloyd Blankfein, Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Bernie Madoff are cell mates.
chow down my hearties!
It is so depressing, I can't even finish your post. You are, of course, completely right in questioning how a swinger of 62 years suddenly decides to throw it all away to make a maid do the jeekie on his thingy. Very convenient. He has been calling in high priced expertise to his Jackson Hole hotel room for 20 years, and suddenly he settles for Miss I gotta make the beds??? If he is a perv, and he moves in these circles, do you get that he has made THOUSANDS of women??? He threw it all away to attack the maid?? Just before he ran for president? Exactly when he was an impediment to the powers that be???
Very well said. Something is not right about this and as usual I am not believing what I am seeing on the corporate owned news media.
" He threw it all away to attack the maid??"
Clinton syndrome?
Maybe...
maybe he'd gotten away with it before who knows...The SDK thing is an interesting thesis, if true.
but Clinton wasn't working on a return to the gold standard...
Sometimes these guys are just "dicks"
Valid in my opinion. Anyone who comes forward on this forum or anywhere else who does not at least have that "wait a minute here" reaction is either full of it or a flat liner.
Agreed, this story is so strange and I don't think there is a man alive with more powerful enemies than DSK.
My gut still tells me he is guilty thou, some of these powerful men thinks they are above everyone and that only they matter. Example: that brazilian central banker that ran over a group of people on bicycles with his car because he was in a hurry and they were in the way.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/brazilian-bike-attacker-central-banker-on-trial-for-attempted-murder-video/2011/03/04/AB5UmpN_blog.html
Yeah, it could be that the guy is a clever sociopath, the kind that climb well.
Yeah, it could be that the guy is a clever sociopath, the kind that climb well.
If I could print this #ucking useless article off on toilet paper, I would and wipe my ass with it and piss all over it.
This koksuker is a parasite. A legion of women have come forward regarding this piece of shit. He shouldn't be sentenced to jail; he should be set loose on the street and let all fathers' who's daughters have been molested or raped, deal with him.
This is a useless #uckin article if I ever saw one. Ilene, you usually come up with quality reprints and articles of your own. You don't need to stoop to this to get your name in lights. You have been well respected on this site... until now.
Good call web bot. I cannot see how it was even allowed on ZH.
What legion and why did they wait until now to come forward? How is he supposed to defend against allegations of rape from 10 years ago? That's why there is a statute of limitations. He might be a slimeball, but does that make him a rapist? Why not just forget the trial and lynch him now
Because the man was powerful. Your question is purely rhetorical as it implies the non existence of power. You deny the existence of power that could suppress people and therefore jump to the conclusion that as people can not be coerced, they should not wait for a powerful man to be weakened before spilling it out.
Nonsense indeed but typical of this US driven world as the US rose on promises toward power, fails to fulfill them and then want to appear to have fulfilled them.
Actually, thanks to his million-dollar Tribal lawyer, the worst that'll happen to Strauss-Kahn will be a hung jury, mistrial, and a plea-bargain. Then back to France and live not-too-happily ever after. I truly do feel for his wife, the art-dealer's zillionaire daughter, who thought she was going to use him like Hillary used Bill: a quick pole-vault into the Power big leagues.
I'm not sure there are statutes of limitations on sexual assault. It would certainly depend on the jurisdiction.
But in any case I agree with your sentiment. We have lots of allegations, but as far as I know there has been no physical evidence produced. Like the author of the post says, I can certainly believe that he is a rapist, but that doesn't mean this isn't still a setup. If he has been rapin' his way across the world until now, it has obviously been covered up for him. Until now, and the question as always should be "Cui bono?"
And there it is.. of course you will have to contend with the new-old republicans club that has found its way into our home as of late.. but I will say Fantastic and Thank You for sharing the Facts!
don't forget jew supporting jew (ben stein defending dsk, imo jew for jew, also rich for rich); perfectly satirized by john stewart (jew achieving greatness and wealth by high performance). what a wonderful world. i truly believe they are the chosen people and i am an atheist.
Your time machine has you stuck in 1936.
The more I study history it's no wonder we, the 'goyim', get a tad upset with Juda corruption and greed.
Blowback is inevitable.
*bonus joke
What did the Jew say when he walked into the wall with a hard-on?
Oy Vey, My Nose!
Eat my shit.
that was funny! and you know it...
truth is.. I am Catholic.. My partner is a Jew.. his nose is like 4 times smaller than mine.. but he is not the lil, weak, fat, bald, tucan sam nose, commerical version Jew either..
Look, everyone can laugh or people can give into the drama.. and thats what it is, drama.. or comedy.
Liveing well is the best, way to skin a cat!
lol ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ you made me laugh! GREAT! schtick!
republicans are behind the frame up?
What a load of crap.
I second this is a load of crap. When did Zerohedge start accepting articles from total conspiracy nutz? I come here for information, not wild ass speculation and conspiracy nut crap, like the truthers and birthere. Mish just put up an article and it clearly shows ZH needs to stop this kind of crap. You cannaot post every piece of garbage. Differnt lines of thought? Yes by all means, this cshit? Waste of bandwidth, time and ZH REPUTATION!
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/05/conspiracy-garbage-on...
C'mond get back to what ZH was, a great breaking ground, edgy site to get relevant ands accutate information. This crap just dumbs down the entire effort.
So Tyler twisted your arm to make you read this?
Or not enough "Gold Bitchez" articles for you today?
Tell you what: I'll trade one conspiracy theories (soon to be proven correct, by the way...) for two gold-bitchez articles and it can be like a matter/anti-matter deal where they both just get annihilated. Deal?
Everyone is entitled to an opinion and we should really try to see all sides before jumping to a conclusion. Otherwise, don't read it. Go back to turd ferguson, if that's what you want.
The article sets forth a plausible scenario. End of story.
Great.
Now, the same mass media that was/is lying to us 24 hours a day every single day about almost everything (WMD is Iraq, democracy in Israel, the Congress and Obama's honesty and integrity, soundness of our banking system to mention few) telling us to trust to an illegal African immigrant living in a public housing.
Yes, the author of the article is right that something is not kosher when suddenly a big Jewish banker is a bad apple. Well, one has to be Madoff who screw at least thousands of other wealthy Jews before the Jewish control mass media called him a crook. However, he got his bail on a spot.
This entire story is not kosher. Let me add, I hate all these banksters for raping and ruining America and its people. At the same time, I would also hate to live in a lawless fascist state we are rapidly moving to.
I disagree. I think this post hits very close to the mark. Sure it's speculative, but that's all you can really do around these global elites. DSK wouldn't be the last guy to get the axe for pushing against the neoliberal agenda.
That said, I doubt he would want to replace it with anything warm and fuzzy. Probably control under a different style. But still, his stance could be enough to earn the wrath of the US.
on Sat, 05/21/2011 - 22:13
#1299374
DSK wouldn't be the last guy to get the axe for pushing against the neoliberal agenda.
********************************************************
the global, NWO is a Liberal agenda? you see the poor people doing well do you?
what kind of weed do you smoke? what kind of pharma do you get perscribed Mr. Regressive Republican?
You should LOVE the NWO.. it is all about making sure mothers are healthy so that the baby can starve later!
You'd have to prove that DSK is not a neoliberal himself, fighting to get more power in the neoliberal structure.
The ground of the article is insane, just like this story of shadow elite, puppeteering everything from the backstage.
The call for another reserve currency is beyond one person's grip, it comes from various global entities. It means that the substitution of DSK by another person will also end into the call for another reserve currency.
Propagandists cant even fathom how poor their propaganda is. They portray a man who is about to rebel about his masters, the socalled shadow elite. In doing so, he is exposing himself. And gets set up in the end.
Trouble is that DSK is an intelligent person, aware of his surroundings. When an intelligent person is engaged into such an endeavour, one priority is to protect oneself from retaliation.
DSK shows no evidence of carefulness. He behaved as if the world belonged to him and he could get away with anything.
There is nothing here other than a very powerful man facing a situation he has lost control on. No conspiracy, nothing like that.
Power is about control. This man is extremelly powerful and one way to prove to himself his own power was to get into situations that would destroy lesser powerful people. But he managed to keep all these situations under control because he was indeed very powerful.
Until the current situation when it flared up.
Nothing more than a power craving person.
"The call for another reserve currency is beyond one person's grip, it comes from various global entities. It means that the substitution of DSK by another person will also end into the call for another reserve currency."
how about the BRICS?........is that good enough for ya?
http://nakedempire2.blogspot.com/2011/04/brics-want-global-monetary-shake-up.html
The obfuscators have piled on early I see.
It will be interesting to watch this one unfold, as this sored tale is only beginning.
Agree. The whole Hollywood production of dragging him off the plane and the perp walk tells me this was a major league setup.
And this article does provide the most logical explanation as to why.
Sarkosy is also amused.
duplicate, move on