IMF open to delayed Greek loan payments if private banks pony up

The IMF is open to giving Greece another bailout and allowing the underwater nation to delay loan payments. Greece has already won a deferred payment plan from it Eurpean Union creditors. The Greek parliament is expected to vote later this month on it's current medium-term austerity plan.
Greek sovereign debt totals €340 billion, or about 150% of GDP.

Details of the new deal to supersede the May, 2010 rescue have yet to be hammered out, but it assumes Greece's funding needs will be covered by a mix of new EU and IMF loans, budget deficit cuts including tax increases and state asset sales, and a "voluntary" participation by private creditors.

One possibility is that creditors would agree to buy new Greek bonds when old ones they hold mature, meaning that Athens would not have to produce the cash up front.

The managing director of ratings agency Moody's sovereign risk group said today it was hard to see how a private sector rollover of Greek debt would be truly voluntary and it would therefore likely constitute a default.
-Irish Times

DSK pleads not guilty

Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn entered a formal not guilty plea this morning to charges of sexually assaulting a Manhattan hotel maid.
The former front-runner French presidential candidate appeared in court for the first time since he was released on $6 million in cash bail and bond last month. He has been under house arrest that includes 24-hour monitors and armed guards, first in a downtown Manhattan apartment and now in the deluxe, $50,000-a-month Tribeca townhouse featured below.

Meanwhile, in a significantly less posh part of town, the housekeeper DSK forcibly sodomized and attempted to rape (allegedly) shares a tiny apartment with her teenage daughter in a building reserved for people with HIV and/or AIDS, and hasn't been able to work since the assault.

The maid's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, said she would testify in court and condemned speculation that she either made up the attack or exaggerated the claims.

"The victim wants you to know that all of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's power, money and influence throughout the world will not keep the truth about what he did to her in that hotel room from coming out," Thompson said.

Thompson said the 32-year-old woman has not worked since the encounter because she is traumatized. And she will not settle the case or back down.

"She is standing up for women around the world sexually assaulted who are too afraid to come forward," he said.
-NBC New York

DSK daily recap

Wow, so today was a full one on the DSK-related news front.
1) He resigned as the “head” of the IMF
2) He was granted bail
3) A grand jury voted to proceed with the indictment against him

Representing the defendant, William Taylor argued to the court that Strauss-Kahn was an "honourable man" who had only one desire at this time, "to clear his name". He presented the judge with the details of a New York security company, Stroz Friedberg, that would be responsible for ensuring that the former IMF chief would not flee the country.
Stringent conditions would include an electronic bracelet that would send a signal to the company and a police station the moment Strauss-Kahn left the property, video cameras to monitor him inside the property, and a 24-hour rotation of armed guards who would be physically present at the apartment.
Taylor said that Strauss-Kahn's wife, Anne Sinclair, had bought a property in Manhattan under her name, and that it had been scoped out and approved by the security company as a suitable location for him to remain under house arrest.
-The Guardian

Representing common sense, New York state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus noted that, “If the defendant were to be able to leave the country it might very well be impossible to bring him back.”

Must be nice to:
1) Regularly stay in $3,000 a night luxury hotel suites
2) Be able to ride first class anytime without having to make reservations
3) Have the wherewithal to purchase any property in Manhattan, let alone on a few days notice
I can’t think of a worse candidate to grant bail to.
Actually, I can’t think of a better candidate to have his mugshot, or better yet a pic of him doing the perp walk, floating around on the internet.

As for his resignation, the posturing to name his successor started quickly.

European officials, who have picked IMF heads for 65 years under a deal that also gives the U.S. the lock on the top World Bank post, moved to retain the privilege, with Sweden backing French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. Russia and South Africa have called for an emerging-market candidate, while some Asian policy makers suggested someone from their region.
-Bloomberg

At the risk of understating the obvious, this is very interesting.

Lagarde is the favorite for the job, according to odds at London-based bookmaker William Hill Plc. It is offering six pounds ($9.71) for every four pounds bet that Lagarde will be the next IMF head, down from odds of 20-1 previously.
Nout Wellink, a European Central Bank Governing Council member, told the Dutch talk show Knevel & Van den Brink late last night: “I know a fantastic candidate, that’s Jean-Claude Trichet,” whose term as ECB president ends in October.
Japan, which has the second-biggest share of voting power at the IMF with 6.25 percent, has yet to decide on its stance, Tetsuro Fukuyama, the government’s deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters in Tokyo today.
The U.S., which has the largest share of votes, at 16.8 percent, has also given no indication of a preference.
South African and Russian officials said yesterday the next head should come from an emerging economy. Trevor Manuel, head of South Africa’s National Planning Commission, is “highly respected in the world,” Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said of his predecessor in an interview in Pretoria.
Russian central bank Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetsov said a developing country should be given the chance to run the IMF to better reflect the role of those economies in global trade. South Korea’s central bank governor made similar remarks before the announcement late yesterday that Strauss-Kahn would resign.
-Bloomberg

Russia wants someone from the under-developed world eh?
What say you China?

BEIJING (MNI) - 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," he said.
-iMarket News

Oh. Et tu China?
For some perspective on the enormity of what is at stake here, we turn to the ever-reliable Tyler Durden:

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.
-Zero Hedge

DSK mugshot

DSK victim may be HIV+

The hotel housekeeper whom IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly sodomized and attempted to rape may be HIV+ and/or have AIDS.

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.
The Post has not been able to ascertain whether the maid, 32, has HIV/AIDS because of medical confidentiality laws.
But the agency rents apartments only for adults with the disease. A Harlem United worker said at least one adult in the household has to be HIV-positive or have AIDS to qualify for one of their units. A healthy adult with a child with HIV or AIDS is not eligible.
-NY Post

Wow.
Yesterday, Zero Hedge broke the news that DSK was being housed in NYC DoC's West Facility for inmates "with contagious diseases." While that was embarassing news at the time, it doesn't compare to this morning's bombshell, which explains why DSK is on suicide watch.

Not sure which is worse, waking up next to a dead hooker, or finding out that the woman you forcibly sodomized is most likely HIV+.
This news doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility of a setup, but it certainly squashes any argument that DSK is any kind of innocent victim here. Whatever happened in that hotel suite was likely not consensual.

DSK rape and arrest animation

So that's some Chinese cartoonists version of the story.
ABC News offers a more official version:

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 Strauss-Kahn with two counts of criminal sexual acts 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 says 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."
-ABC News

So I stand corrected. DSK is an alleged sodomizer and attempted rapist.
He is not officially a "rich rapist" as I previously reported.

Getting blown while the world burns

As US Debt races towards the national debt ceiling (ETA = tomorrow) that was raised just last year, word out of New York is that IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested on board a Paris-bound flight for forcing a Times Square hotel employee to give him - yup, you guessed it, head.
Talk about theatre of the absurd.
The alleged incident took place at the upscale Sofitel hotel on West 44th Street near Times Square.

The trouble began at around 1 p.m. yesterday when a 32-year-old housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn's $3,000-a-night suite at the luxury Sofitel on West 44th Street -- apparently unaware he was still inside.
The married Strauss-Kahn was in the bathroom, and emerged naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where "he jumps her," a source said.
"She pulled away from him and he dragged her down a hallway into the bathroom where he engaged in a criminal sexual act, according to her account to detectives," Browne said. "He tried to lock her into the hotel room."
Soon afterward, Strauss-Kahn got dressed and headed off to JFK for a flight to Paris.
When he was approached on the plane by Port Authority cops, he said, "What is this about?" sources said. He was taken off the aircraft without handcuffs.
Two law-enforcement sources said Strauss-Kahn was trying to flee authorities. Police said he left his cellphone and other personal items in the room.
"It looked like he got out of there in a hurry," Browne said.
Strauss-Kahn, who had a meeting planned for today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, has an arrangement with Air France that allows him to get on any flight and sit in first class, the sources said. He was traveling alone.
-NY Post

I guess it shouldn't be any surprise. Not only does Strauss-Kahn have a history of sexual deviance AND corruption, but the IMF has been raping developing nations for decades. The only thing that's truly newsworthy about the story is where it happened. This really speaks to the world banking cabal's opinion of the United States. Or is it the other way around? Is this like that scene in Godfather II where the corrupt Senator wakes up next to a dead hooker? Hmmm.
When you're the hooker, or in this case, the housekeeper, does it matter which rich rapist is ultimately guilty?

We are in an ongoing global economic depression. The signs are everywhere, even as they are lost on economic leaders that put private banks and short-term speculative capital before citizens and long-term working capital. Central banks use other people’s future money in the form of debt to do this. No central bank holds, and thus enables, more national debt than the Federal Reserve.
I hate to keep repeating this, but until someone of some ability to do anything gets it, I’m going to keep going. Last week, Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, co-enabler with Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner (among others) of our ballooning debt and mis-prioritized economic policy, urged Congress for another debt cap increase, or else. The guy holds about $2.5 trillion of debt on his books, being used for – nothing helpful to the general economy. A simple transfer would solve the debt cap problem in a nanosecond. Going a step further, a simple exchange of any of the $1.5 trillion of excess bank reserves receiving interest from the Fed, would do the same. Instead of defaulting on, how about retiring, some debt? Thinking outside the box.
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.
-Nomi Prins

The end of "The Age of America"

It appears that many of you are interested in this whole subject of Chinese investment in US treasuries, so I thought I'd throw you another post-easter, sugar-free bone

The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.
For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.
And it’s a lot closer than you may think.
According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now.
Put that in your calendar.
It provides a painful context for the budget wrangling taking place in Washington, D.C., right now. It raises enormous questions about what the international security system is going to look like in just a handful of years. And it casts a deepening cloud over both the U.S. dollar and the giant Treasury market, which have been propped up for decades by their privileged status as the liabilities of the world’s hegemonic power.
According to the IMF forecast, whomever is elected U.S. president next year — Obama? Mitt Romney? Donald Trump? — will be the last to preside over the world’s largest economy.
-MarketWatch

In case you don't believe what you just read, try this on for size: China is mulling cutting their US Holdings by TWO THIRDS from $3 tillion down to $1 trillion. In case you aren't quick in the mathematics department, that's $2 trillion in US Debt that China is looking to divest itself from.

BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- China should reduce its excessive foreign exchange reserves and further diversify its holdings, Tang Shuangning, chairman of China Everbright Group, said on Saturday.
The amount of foreign exchange reserves should be restricted to between 800 billion to 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars, Tang told a forum in Beijing, saying that the current reserve amount is too high.
China's foreign exchange reserves increased by 197.4 billion U.S. dollars in the first three months of this year to 3.04 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of March.

For those of you keeping score of such things, yes, $2 trillion is about how much the Fed recently printed up out of thin air.

So why is the Fed carpet-bombing the global economy? To protect the domestic economy? That makes no sense, for the Fed's policies are pushing oil up to the point where there is no way to keep the U.S. economy from tipping into recession. It isn't acting on behalf of the domestic economy, of course; it's acting on behalf of domestic banking and Wall Street.
The Fed is busily destroying the village, suposedly to save it--only it's the global village. But the Fed isn't the only player with a stake in its game, and the other players, notably China, are tipping their hand that they will have to act, and soon, to protect their own domestic economies from the Fed's destructive policies.
-Charles Hugh Smith