Christine Lagarde, new IMF director/Madame chairman (photo: wikipedia)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The IMF has replaced former director Dominique Strauss-Kahn as its director with another French citizen: “The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today selected Christine Lagarde to serve as IMF Managing Director and Madame Chairman of the Executive Board for a five-year term starting on July 5, 2011.”
Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned 18 May after he was charged with raping a maid in a New York hotel.
Lagarde, age 55, was selected in a month-long process by the 24-member executive board, which represents the IMF’s 187 member countries.
Lagarde, the IMF statement notes, “has been the Minister of Finance of France since June 2007. Prior to that, she served as France’s Minister for Foreign Trade for two years. Ms. Lagarde also has had an extensive and noteworthy career as an anti-trust and labor lawyer, serving as a partner with the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie, where the partnership elected her as chairman in October 1999. She held the top post at the firm until June 2005 when she was named to her initial ministerial post in France. Ms. Lagarde has degrees from Institute of Political Studies (IEP) and from the Law School of Paris X University, where she also lectured prior to joining Baker & McKenzie in 1981.”
IMF head to appear before judge Sunday to hear sexual assault charges
Update 2, 11:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), has been formally charged in New York Sunday with sexual assault, sequestering a person and attempted rape, charges filed after a maid in his New York City hotel room Saturday 14 May was taken to hospital with minor injuries, according to French newspaper Liberation.
New York police pulled him off afternoon Air France flight 23 for Paris just as the doors of the plane were closing. Paul Browne, New York Police Department spokesperson, Saturday evening told several journalists in the US that police expected to press charges soon that were “anticipated to include criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment”. The charges were reportedly filed early Sunday.
Undeclared but presumed candidate for French Socialists
Strauss-Kahn, 62, is widely expected to be the 2012 French presidential candidate for the Socialist party against President Nicolas Sarkozy after preliminaries next September. His arrest comes on the heels of attacks by French media over his high-flying lifestyle and his wife’s wealth: Anne Sinclair is a television news celebrity in France and grand-daughter of one of the 20th century’s wealthiest art merchants, Paul Rosenberg. She was born in New York but completed her studies in Paris. The couple, married in 1991, have been living in Washington, DC since 2007. They reportedly have several homes around the world.
Not the first peccadillo
The Tribune de Geneve 13 May carried a long article detailing the couple’s wealth, based on several French media reports. Anne Sinclair’s blog Sunday makes no mention of her husband’s arrest. She publicly forgave him in 2008 after he admitted to having an affair with an economist, Piroska Nagy, who worked at the IMF and was the wife of noted Argentinian economist Mario Blejer. The scandal created a furor at the IMF.
He is being held in Harlem, at a special victims unit of the NY Police Department.
His job makes him a United Nations technical expert, a position that does not give him diplomatic immunity, according to ABC News in the US. Browne told reporters that he had not said a word to police, hours after being taken into custody.
Police call maid’s report “credible”
The 32-year-old maid, whose report is called “credible” by police, told them “that she entered Strauss-Kahn’s room at the Sofitel near Manhattan’s Times Square at about 1 p.m. [13:00] Saturday and he emerged from the bedroom naked, threw her down and tried to sexually assault her, Browne said. She escaped and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police,” reports NPR.
Le Monde in France is following the story closely, with an online front page blog on the breaking news. The French newspaper notes that “DSK” is scheduled to meet this coming week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by a European Commission event in Brussels, an economic forum.
The New York Times, which broke the story, immediately put Strauss-Kahn’s presidential chances in the past tense, saying that he “was widely expected to become the Socialist candidate for the French presidency”. The newspaper reported Saturday that he would be represented by his lawyer William Taylor, but first AFP and then later Libération said Taylor was unable to reach his client Saturday. The Village Voice interprets Le Figaro’s take on where all this will lead, in a Paris to New York assessment of the incident that gives more graphic, if unconfirmed, detail than most stories.
Strauss-Kahn, whom New York police describe as apparently in a hurry to leave the Sofitel, left his cell phone behind in his hotel room.
Meeting at Swiss central bank 11 May will bring together bank governors, policy-makers
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss National Bank and the International Monetary Fund will co-host a meeting 11 May in Zurich that will bring together top-level participants in the international monetary system to review its weaknesses and identify areas that need reform.
The conference will “provide an opportunity to exchange ideas on a number of related topics, including sources of instability in the international monetary system, improving the supply of reserve assets, dealing with volatile capital flows, and possible alternatives to countries’ accumulation of reserves as self-insurance against future crises,” the two announced Tuesday 27 April.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council, concerned about changes to the G20 group of the world’s largest economies and calls for changes to other international financial bodies, has told the country’s finance ministry to take steps to strengthen Switzerland’s role in the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank. Developing countries and emerging markets have been calling for reform of these two bodies, the two Bretton Woods international financial institutions, in recent months, suggesting that voting weights need to be reconsidered. Switzerland is keen to ensure that its seats on the Executive Councils of each group become permanent.
The cabinet (Federal Council) has also instructed the finance ministry to work closely with the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss financial market supervisory authority Finma to strengthen its role in the Financial Stability Board (FSB).
The leaders of the G-20 group of the world’s 20 most important economies, meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have said that the grouping will become the world’s foremost economic coordination body, the White House announced late 24 September. This is a recognition of the importance of emerging economic powers such as Brazil, China and India. The G-8 comprised only the world’s top industrialized nations. In Pittsburgh the US is urging that institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reflect the changing economic circumstances as well. South Korea will preside the next G-20 meeting. Los Angeles Times, New York Times
