Dominique Strauss-Kahn

There's a funny thing about the New World Order: it eventually gets too big and bites the hand the feeds it. Enter the PBoC: "The new IMF leadership needs to reflect changes in the world economic order and be more representative of emerging market economies, Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Thursday in his first public comments since the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. "The senior management team of the IMF should better reflect changes in world economic patterns and should be more representative of emerging market economies." Translation - no more European of American cronies. It is also probably safe to say that Lagarde's odds of pulling the white smoke out of the conclave bag have just plunged. It is also safe to say that with China now unofficially Europe's backstopper (and there were those wondering why China is buying all those Spanish and Portuguese bonds), what China wants, China gets.

When we first speculated that many women would step up and claim they were being abused by DSK a few days back, we had no idea just how right we would be. Yet even we had no idea about the moral caliber of the women doing the "stepping up." Well, The Telegraph has just released the bombshell. "Dominique Strauss-Kahn hired prostitutes from the "Manhattan Madam" who infamously also served Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former Governor of New York, she claimed on Wednesday night. Kristin Davis said she provided young women for the IMF chief in 2006, as he ran for the French Socialists' presidential nomination, and that one complained about his "aggressive" behaviour. "He was a client of my agency," she told The Daily Telegraph. "When men abuse women I'm no longer going to protect their identities". As for DSK's preference: ""He wanted an 'All-American girl', with a fresh face, from the
mid-West," she said. "A girl in January 2006 complained he was rough and
angry, and said she didn't want to see him again"."And the hits just keep on coming...

Yesterday when we broke the news that DSK was housed in Rikers Island "West Facility" reserved for inmates with infectious diseases, we speculated, jokingly we hoped, that this may be due to his affliction with a certain sexually transmitted disease. Alas, if what the the NY Post reports this morning ends up being true, the situation may be substantially more serious: "Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have more to worry about than a possible prison sentence. The IMF chief's alleged sex-assault victim lives in a Bronx apartment rented exclusively for adults with HIV or AIDS, The Post has learned. The hotel maid, a West African immigrant, has occupied the fourth-floor High Bridge pad with her 15-year-old daughter since January -- and before that, lived in another Bronx apartment set aside by Harlem Community AIDS United strictly for adults with the virus and their families." Oops.

And so another woman appears on the DSK scene, so far unnamed. As AP reports, "An employee who had a brief affair with IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned the organization about his behavior toward women in a letter sent three years ago." And no, this is no the Hungarian Piroska Nagy who almost caused the downfall of DSK if only the bailout crew had had enough brains to do a little more to the "head" than censure him. But it appears that the two are close: "The person who confirmed the existence of
the letter is close to the former International Monetary Fund employee,
Hungarian-born economist Piroska Nagy. The person declined to be
identified, citing the sensitivity of the matter." As a reminder the so far only known major transgression of DSK, Nagy, had worked at the IMF for decades, and left the organization after the affair with Strauss-Kahn in 2008. An IMF-funded investigation into the affair cleared Strauss-Kahn of wrongdoing but criticized his judgment. If it now turns out that the IMF had been officially warned about DSK, yet completely ignored the charges, we may have another public humiliation ala the SEC and Bernie Madoff, which ultimately will strip the organization of even more "bailout" and dollar-alternative power. Which begs the question: just how far will the powers that be go to make sure the SDR concept is now and forever killed as a USD-replacement currency?

Mohamed El-Erian is back to doing what he has been doing best lately: writing opeds. Today, the man who some speculated could well be the replacement for DSK himself, has written a scathing posting blasting the IMF's sad state, focusing on the specifics of the "head" position as well as the qualifications required to attain it. His coup de grace: "This feudal selection approach must be changed; and now is the time to do it. Without a credible and quickly-recovering IMF, Europe will face even more uncertain prospects, progress on structural reforms in advanced economies will recede, and the world will find it more difficult to make room for rapidly growing emerging economies." As for speculation that MEE (in keeping with acronymis) could be the next DSK: "I will not be part of this process; I already have a great job, here in California." His words of wisdom: "Hopefully, governments of the world can finally come together and open the selection process to a pool of other candidates from around the world. By so doing, they would cast aside a tradition that no longer serves a purpose consistent with the spirit of multilateralism and its required effectiveness."

A week ago it was called "Sovereign Liability Management Exercise" following the politically corrected definition of the Greek bankruptcy by Goldman Sachs. However, after Zero Hedge proposed the unpopular acronym SLiME to capture the essence of this idea, the latest appellation of the current Greek metamorphosis stage from solvency to bankruptcy appears to be "reprofiling." Per Bloomberg: "European finance ministers for the first time floated the idea of talks with bondholders over extending Greece’s debt-repayment schedule, saying that last year’s 110 billion-euro ($156 billion) rescue has failed to restore the country to financial health. Europe would consider “reprofiling” Greek bond maturities as part of a package including stepped-up sales of state assets and deeper spending cuts, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said. “If all these conditions are fulfilled, we can discuss the question of reprofiling,” Juncker told reporters late yesterday after chairing a meeting of euro-area finance chiefs in Brussels. “It’s not reprofiling or nothing. It’s measures, measures and measures, and then maybe reprofiling.” (And speaking of simple profiiling, perhaps someone can tell us why the Rikers island inmate directory is still down, now for almost 12 hours, and since the time of DSK's admission). But back to Greece, where "reprofiling" is merely the latest term to push for what will likely end up being a consensual restructuring: "Introducing that prospect marks a break in Europe’s crisis- fighting strategy, with governments potentially shifting some costs to bondholders instead of relying on taxpayer-funded bailouts to stamp out the debt crisis. The talks were clouded by the absence of International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was denied bail in New York yesterday after being arrested on sexual-assault charges." Of course, when that fails, there is always the last case definition: the "muddling through" one, which is the one known as the "rolloff" where reality finally meats the can in the street, and freefall bankruptcy follows.

ABC has released the details of the full complaint issued against DSK: "International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly forced a New York City hotel housekeeper to perform oral sex and submit to anal sex, in addition to allegedly attempting to rape her, according to a complaint filed today by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. The complaint charges him with two counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of attempted rape, sexual abuse in the first degree, unlawful imprisonment, sexual abuse in the third degree and forcible touching. The complaint is a terse charging document, less than a full page in length. It charges that he forcibly touched the housekeeper's breasts, attempted to pull off her panty hose, twice "forcibly made contact with his penis and the informant's mouth" and that "the defendant engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion."

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that “the sharp drop in gold and silver prices has stimulated a surge in buying from India in a sign that consumers in the world’s largest gold-buying country retain faith in the decade-long bull story for precious metals.” Chhabil Jain, a Mumbai silver trader told the Financial Times that “demand for silver bars was going through the roof” and that “many vendors were starting to run low on stocks”. “People are booking incredible amounts of silver as they see the current drop in prices as a great opportunity to buy more ... most are buying for pure investment,” he added. Bloomberg reports this morning that silver was the most traded commodity in April.

To all those who thought, himself probably included, that DSK would get away scott free from his most recent rape incident (as opposed to the metaphorical rape that the IMF has exercised over the decades over insolvent creditor nations), the Telegraph has one word: wrong. "Dominique Strauss-Kahn was told he does not have diplomatic immunity from prosecution against charges including alleged rape, said Paul Browne, an NYPD spokesman."

All around the world, the bodies and countries with the most power keep screwing people (some like IMF head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, literally) and entire nations, while supporting their banking systems. Last week, S&P announced it would downgrade Portugal if it didn’t play ball with the IMF and EU over its 4-year 78E billion-bailout program in return for hacking public programs. Echoing our own Congressional goons spewing spending cuts in the face of inadequate revenues and for-bank-manufactured mega-debt, the S&P noted, “Two-thirds of the projected savings in [Portugal’s] 2012 budget will likely come from spending cuts.” On a roll, the IMF also declared Italy needs ‘structural reform’, meaning labor market reform, less public ownership and more private investment to “unlock its growth potential.” (aka invite more speculative capital at its earliest convenience.) Meanwhile, thousands of people are again striking in Greece, as the IMF and EU discuss more austerity measures, following the bank bailout that provoked public outrage a year ago, and a rating downgrade by S&P. The EU remains more concerned with investors regaining confidence in Greece than economic stability of its citizens. Then, there’s Ireland, for whom its last bailout didn’t dent its 14.5% unemployment rate, or fill in the gaping holes its banks dug. In short, the global ‘remedy’ for depressed economies and debt-bloated banking sectors remains to do – more of the same - and pretend this will beget a different outcome. Yet, there is no way this strategy will result in more stable economies. What we can expect instead is further widespread deterioration.

Not all headlines today are about the sexual indignities of the IMF head. While the world is eagerly awaiting yet another photo that may or may not be released, in the form of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn mugshot, a surge in violence along Israel's three borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, has left at last 10 dead and dozens wounded as Palestinians marked what they term Nakba, or "the catastrophe" of Israel's founding in 1948. Reuters reports that "Israeli troops shot at protesters in three separate locations to prevent crowds from crossing Israeli frontier lines in the deadliest such confrontation in years. Israeli and Syrian media reports said Israeli gunfire killed four people after dozens of Palestinian refugees infiltrated the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria, along a disputed border that has been quiet for decades." A subsequent update from Reuters states that "more than 100 people had been wounded in the shooting incident in the border village of Maroun al-Ras." Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a stern warning: "We hope the calm and quiet will quickly return, but let nobody be mistaken, we are determined to defend our borders and sovereignty." Alas, it appears that this latest bout of regional violence will only escalate and that quite rapidly: "In Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial hub, a truck driven by an Arab Israeli slammed into vehicles and pedestrians, killing one man and injuring 17 people." The only remaining wild card at this point is Iran: should Tehran join in, then all bets will be off. Also, CL traders can't hardly wait the arrival of another record vol day as soon as electronic trading opens later in the day.

It turns out that the meeting that DSK was rushing to (in just a bit of a rush, without his cell phone), was a critical one for the future of Greece. Per the AP: "The arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn means a key participant
will be missing at a European meeting considering whether to give Greece
billions more in financial help." Does this mean that all Greek bailout talk is put on hold? As a result the headless (no pun intended) IMF is forced to promote its second in command, John Lipsky, previously chief economist of JP Morgan, to the rank of acting managing director, even as "separately, spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said the fund remains fully functioning and operational despite the arrest of the fund's chief executive." What is funny is that it was just yesterday that Lipsky announced he was stepping down in August. What happens to the world's pseudo-bailout organization come September, when its top two officers are gone, is anyone's guess.

A plethora of shocked, shocked, responses, that Strauss-Kahn tried to get away (and off) with it again... Of course, the focus now is on the presidential race which just like that of the US, following the Mike Huckabee announcement, is once again wide open.

If there was any threat that the IMF would launch an SDR alternative to the USD, it is all over now. According to the NYPost, IMF head Dominique Strauss-Khan (no Bob Pisani, it is not a she) was just arrested on board the first class cabin (thank you taxpayers) of a New York-Paris flight as it was about to take off. And here is where the story gets surreal: "Around noon today, a maid at the hotel knocked on the door of Strauss-Khan’s room. After letting the maid in, Strauss-Khan allegedly threw the maid on the room’s bed and forced her to perform oral sex on him, said police sources. Strauss-Khan let the maid leave — and soon afterward, headed off to Kennedy Airport for his flight to Paris." Of course this will not be the first sexual misconduct for the head of the world's global pseudo bail out organization: as a reminder back in 2008 the IMF hired a law firm to investigate whether its chief had an improper relationship with a female employee, Piroska Nagy. Back then he got off. This time he won't (even though he did... in a way), and it appears that the IMF is about to lose its head, meaning the fate of literally unlimited bailout funding is now up in the air. Also, it appears that being head of major bureaucracy does not automatically mean getting head on an ad hoc, and involuntary basis. Lastly, we are stunned it was not Herman Von Rompuy or G-Pap on the receiving end.

Update: Strauss Khan to be taken to Police Service Area 5 at 221 East 123rd Street

Today has been a busy day for central planners around the world: the IMF and the World Bank are holding their spring meetings which has resulted in an avalanche of Bloomberg excerpts. Courtesy of Reuters, here is a full summary of the key statements by various high level officials. As usual anything that is being denied is about to hit us head on. Of particular note are the statements by TeflonTurboTaxTim Geithner.