Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Lagarde
The view in the left wing Tribune paper is "The prospect of getting Christine Lagarde instead (of Strauss-Kahn) is, frankly, frightening.
Yes, she is a highly intelligent woman. But so was Margaret Thatcher and look what she did. Lagarde’s economic views are more sophisticated than Thatcher’s, but they come from the same stable.
She is a right-wing, orthodox economist who would impose the same kind of destructive, deflationary, make-the-poor-pay measures on crisis hit countries for which the IMF has long been notorious. That’s exactly why George Osborne, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy back her.
Indeed, Lagarde would probably tighten up the regime of DSK (as the French apparently call him), who was supposed to be a bit of a lefty – an idea that might surprise the millions thrown out of work in Greece and Portugal. Under her leadership, the IMF would certainly live up to its reputation as the hammer of the poor. Let’s hope she doesn’t get the job."
IMO: Now all that is true enough. She is in Delhi at the moment. In Chattisgarh they are starving, seemingly because of such 'businesslike' tactics. And in Maharashtra, thousands are driven to suicide each year because of such tactics. She must know a few things, I believe she headed up Baker McKenzie for a few years, but here in India one wonders what the repercussions will be, for the poor and for those who have to face their anger directly, unlike Lafarge who must live in cloud-cuckoo land.
Yes, she is a highly intelligent woman. But so was Margaret Thatcher and look what she did. Lagarde’s economic views are more sophisticated than Thatcher’s, but they come from the same stable.
She is a right-wing, orthodox economist who would impose the same kind of destructive, deflationary, make-the-poor-pay measures on crisis hit countries for which the IMF has long been notorious. That’s exactly why George Osborne, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy back her.
Indeed, Lagarde would probably tighten up the regime of DSK (as the French apparently call him), who was supposed to be a bit of a lefty – an idea that might surprise the millions thrown out of work in Greece and Portugal. Under her leadership, the IMF would certainly live up to its reputation as the hammer of the poor. Let’s hope she doesn’t get the job."
IMO: Now all that is true enough. She is in Delhi at the moment. In Chattisgarh they are starving, seemingly because of such 'businesslike' tactics. And in Maharashtra, thousands are driven to suicide each year because of such tactics. She must know a few things, I believe she headed up Baker McKenzie for a few years, but here in India one wonders what the repercussions will be, for the poor and for those who have to face their anger directly, unlike Lafarge who must live in cloud-cuckoo land.
# posted by uv : 3:38 PM
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