Was the Hotel worker an immigrant? This whole thing sounds so bizarre as to be completely going down the wrong track. Does the Hotel Worker speak perfect English? Did DSK take a shower, hear the maid come in, not have any clothes in the bathroom, then dive through to his room to get some clothes on before the maid got there, then in his haste collided with the maid as both tumbled to the floor, DSK swearing at the maid landed on top of her on the floor, perhaps placing a hand by accident where it shouldn’t go as can happen when you instinctively put your hand out to stop yourself falling, giving the maid a shock. The maid then reported she had been ‘attacked by a mad guest’, the Hotel then jumped to the wrong conclusion that nakedness+attack = rape and reported it.

Then the authorities stepped in, rather heavy handedly, press present at arrest, pictures with handcuffs on, no bail, placed in High Security prison, not allowed to shave before trial, consistently villified and belittled, as if a trial had already found him guilty.

Consequences? Well, this strengthens the hand of the unpopular right wing Sarkozy and the even more right wing Fascist Le Pen (who without DSK, the leading left-centre hope) has a real chance of taking the French Presidency and putting nukes into the hands of a Fascist government for the first time ever (the Tea Party not yet having done more than influence elections, not yet won any). This could be a NeoCon dream.

Even if neocons aren’t politically involved, some of their banking cousins who want to undermine the Euro might not complain about further instability for the currency as a consequence of the IMF chief being incommunicado for a time. These are all parts of various conspiracy theories out there right now – and they’ll get worse, I’m sure.

For me, I just think it’s sad that the US legal system has drifted so far away from presumed innocence, the foundation on which all Anglo-Saxon speaking countries base their law on: A man is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Just not in the Land of the Free.

As long as DSK doesn’t miss the election, I reckon he’ll be fine.

I think the real issue here is whether the IMF is going to start asking for diplomatic status for its officials.

Hernando DeSoto’s article on our state of affairs
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/con tent/11_19/b4227060634112.htm

The US has a reputation for acquisitive females making sexual accusations to get men into trouble. All you have to say is that you are a banker, an enormously powerful banker (and let’s face it, Dominic Strauss Kahn doesn’t have a crisis of insufficient self-confidence) and maybe even overdo it a bit and say you are the world’s most powerful banker and while blowing yourself up your maid thinks she can make a quick buck.

I wouldn’t put it past a Frenchman to have wandering hands, but am not 100% sure what DSK’s target might be here. His wife seems 100% sure he would NEVER do anything like that. I know Frenchmen can be hyper critical and treat waiters and servants terribly badly, so perhaps he somehow insulted the woman and she’s after revenge. Who knows.

But to suggest we write him off without waiting for a trial is very shallow of you Felix. Getting rid of him as President of the IMF just because of an allegation smacks of fit up and sting to me. And no, we don’t want another American in charge of the levers of IMF and world banking for governments when the problem originated in the US in the first place, the US has terrible finances because taxes are too low, and most of the world’s money is elsewhere anyhow.

Of course, the German’s haven’t had a major post Internationally for a while, at least not since the ECB passed into the hands of a Frenchman. If not Kahn, then why not Vielgeld von Bankenberg or one of his colleagues?

6/4 Lagarde
3/1 Carstens (bless you for lumping Mexico in with the gringos)
5/1 Brown
8/1 El-Erian
20/1 Moises Naim
33/1 Paul Krugman
50/1 Jim Cramer
100/1 Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s latest FinMin
200/1 Lady Gaga, Peter Schiff, Any CNBC anchor etc etc

By the way, I rate your chances higher than Fraga’s