{"id":5168,"date":"2011-05-16T17:33:45","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T00:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/?p=5168"},"modified":"2014-01-09T10:17:13","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T17:17:13","slug":"dominique-strauss-khan-discovers-the-limits-of-diaphanous-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/dominique-strauss-khan-discovers-the-limits-of-diaphanous-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominique Strauss-Khan Discovers The Limits Of Diaphanous Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/b>ho knows what transpired in that Sofitel hotel room between Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his alleged victim. (We refuse to use the invitation to bestow trendiness on Strauss-Kahn with the elevation to “DSK” moniker. Similarly, to Bernard-Henry Levy running around Libya as the intrepid “BHL”). <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

H<\/b>ow fragile Strauss-Kahn’s undeniable influence turned out to be. Wielding the American-created international bureaucracy, like his predecessors he stood astride the global economy as a multi-lateral colossus. His words could raise or lower the living standards of millions. His smart action requesting greater liquidity in 2008 is credited as helping avert international meltdown. <\/p>\n

Yet his vaunted stature vanished when Port Authority plain clothes officers boarded a plane and arrested him. He had no retinue, no phalanx. Not even diplomatic immunity for the non-official allegations in question. All that soft power, evaporated. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He faces charges of a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. Unlike opaque international economic negotiations, his alleged crimes are something non-Davos attendees can grok. It doesn’t help that the legal term used in his charges often is ‘sodomy’. By the time his legal team explains the term covers a variety of potential activities beyond the obvious, he’s losing ground.<\/p>\n

A Prince of the Global Economy tumbles. He had many opponents. He wanted to provide Greece an additional $85 billion in new loans and loosen terms and conditions of its already spent $155 billion in 2010 (known in IMF-speak as ‘recalibration). He was working on Merkel to ease Germany in that direction; Sarkozy remains the most resistant. Portugal’s loans were approved on Monday. <\/p>\n

Polls indicated that Strauss-Kahn would have likely beat Sarkozy in French presidential elections next year.<\/a> Naturally, circumstances give rise to speculations of political foul play. He’s finished for this election no matter what. <\/p>\n

His own people aren’t helping<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers maintained he left the hotel at midday Saturday, after first paying his bill and handing over his key. He had lunch and took a taxi to the airport, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old housekeeper at the center of the allegations identified Strauss-Kahn in a police lineup Sunday.<\/p>\n

. . . the Frenchman’s lawyers, who are set to cast doubt on the alleged victim’s motives, were apparently surprised to see a “not very seductive” woman turn up for the identification parade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

M<\/b>ay justice prevail regardless. Other apparent victims of his unsolicited advances come forward. “My kingdom, my kingdom for a bullet proof alibi. Merde !<\/i>”<\/p>\n

We’ll watch the Chinese and other emerging economies maneuver around the weakened IMF with great interest. Not only to glean insights on their IMF positions per se<\/i>. The key question remains whether they see the IMF, agent of the American post war order for the last half-century, adaptable to their ambitions, and if so, how and to what ends. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who knows what transpired in that Sofitel hotel room between Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his alleged victim. (We refuse to use the invitation to bestow trendiness on Strauss-Kahn with the elevation to “DSK” moniker. Similarly, to Bernard-Henry Levy running around Libya as the intrepid “BHL”). How fragile Strauss-Kahn’s undeniable influence turned out to be. Wielding the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[259],"class_list":{"0":"post-5168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-acolytes-in-aktion","7":"tag-foreign-policy","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}