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Currently, the United States is discouraging the International Monetary Fund and its non-European members from promising additional financial assistance to Europe. The American posture is understandable and, at one level, sensible. With our own debt and deficit problems, we and other countries can be forgiven for feeling that it not up to us to extricate Europe from its mistakes and excesses. President Obama, facing a tough re-election fight, is hardly in a position to offer financial aid to Europe. Just as Washington wants Europe to do more to enhance its political and military security, so is it appropriate to demand...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Israel on Monday of potential economic instability, AFP reported. According to the report, the IMF said the instability was due to the high unemployment and deep poverty among Arab-Israelis as well as hareidi-religious Jews. The warning was made in an IMF report on the Israeli economy. “Severe poverty is concentrated in these groups,” the IMF report was quoted as having said, adding that only 40 percent of hareidi men have jobs, and only 20 percent of Arab-Israeli women are employed. The report noted that their wage levels are low compared to other Israeli groups....

Greece's largest police union has threatened to issue arrest warrants for officials from the country's European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders for demanding deeply unpopular austerity measures. ---------------------------------------------------------- The threat is largely symbolic since legal experts say a judge must first authorize such warrants, but it shows the depth of anger against foreign lenders who have demanded drastic wage and pension cuts in exchange for funds to keep Greece afloat. "Since you are continuing this destructive policy, we warn you that you cannot make us fight against our brothers. We refuse to stand against our parents, our brothers, our...

China`s growth could fall to 4-pct. range this year: IMF FEBRUARY 08, 2012 03:05 The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that China`s economic growth could fall to the 4-percent range if the eurozone`s woes deepen, urging Beijing to prepare stimulus measures in response. China`s export-dependent economy is highly exposed through trade links, with a large volume of Chinese exports going to Europe. Lower import demand will reduce corporate profitability and household income, which in turn could lower GDP growth, the IMF said. The contribution of exports to GDP growth in China was minus 0.5 percent last year, and could further...

This is a google translate translation: Ministers participating in the "great train robbery" First registration: Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 16:28 The legal use Katsios was perfectly clear, speaking Tuesday at noon in Makis Triantafyllopoulos and zougla Radio . In the circuit of corrupt government officials, tax collectors, managers and auditors of SDOE various institutions involved and politicians. The new element, however, that makes the difference is that between those policies, are ministers. The scam is repeated over time and after the introduction of Value Added Tax in 1987, namely how the circuits set up the "Great Theft of the Nation"...

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Ma) is in Egypt where he has been sucking up to the Muslim Brotherhood. With the US already $15 trillion in debt, Kerry wants the International Monetary Fund - for which the US provides the largest piece of the budget - to finance the Muslim Brotherhood's takeover of Egypt. In addition to praising the Brotherhood’s election as a model of transparency and integrity, Sen. Kerry also called for an infusion of cash from the International Monetary Fund to undergird Egypt’s new Islamist government.

As Greece and its lenders prepare for another week of tense negotiations, European officials now say that the task is less to help the country through its troubles than to avoid the sort of uncontrolled default that many experts fear could threaten the global financial system. Officials from the so-called troika of foreign lenders to Greece — the European Central Bank, European Union and International Monetary Fund — have come to believe that the country has neither the ability nor the will to carry out the broad economic reforms it has promised in exchange for aid, people familiar with the...

(BERLIN) - Germany's government Monday categorically ruled out any hike in bailout fund guarantees following the ratings downgrade of nine countries by Standard and Poor's. "The guarantees for the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility) are largely enough for what it has to do in the coming months," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Deutschlandfunk public radio. He said the EFSF had already had to pay higher rates to borrow on the markets in the past, meaning "that it does not therefore only depend on the rating". Germany, Europe's top economy, is already the EFSF's main guarantor, which began with 440...

<p>Now as the city celebrates its 125th birthday, creative South Africans are seeing gold in warehouses and cheap office space, and they're revitalizing neighborhoods with galleries, museums, shops, studios, clubs and restaurants.</p> <p>JOHANNESBURG - (AP) -- Johannesburg dates its beginnings to the discovery of gold in 1886. Its downtown, where skyscrapers tower over deep mines, was abandoned by business in recent decades, and squatters turned the office towers into high-rise slums. But now, as the city celebrates its 125th birthday, creative South Africans are seeing gold in warehouses and cheap office space, and they're revitalizing neighborhoods with galleries, museums, shops, studios, clubs and restaurants.</p>

Financial Panic Sweeps Europe As The Head Of The IMF Warns Of A “1930s Depression”December 17, 2011 Are we on the verge of another Great Depression? Christian Lagarde, the head of the IMF, said this week that if dramatic action is not taken immediately we could actually see conditions "reminiscent of the 1930s depression" and that no country on earth "will be immune to the crisis". Right now, financial panic is sweeping across Europe, but most Americans are not too concerned about it because they simply don't understand how important the EU is. The truth is that the EU has...

International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde has warned the Great Depression of the 1930s may repeat itself unless the EU pulls together and gets foreign help. Fresh unemployment statistics added to the gloom by highlighting the social cost of austerity. “If the international community does not work together, the risk from an economic point of view is that of retraction, rising protectionism, isolation. This is exactly the description of what happened in the Thirties and what followed is not something we are looking forward to," Lagarde said in a speech delivered to the US State Department on Thursday (15...

Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 Time for IMF to save Europe By LAURENCE H. SUMMERS The Washington Post WASHINGTON — European leaders met last week for yet another "historic" summit at which the fate of Europe is said to hang in the balance. Yet it is clear that this will not be the last one convened to deal with the financial crisis. Given that Europe is the largest component of the global economy, the rest of the world has a stake in helping to avoid major financial accidents. It also has a stake in aiding continued growth in Europe and ensuring...

Vice President Joe Biden, now best known for being the man who relies primarily on Jon Corzine for financial advice, continued his recent roll of epic linguistic blunders this morning. As Reuters reports, the VP, "joked during a visit to debt-choked Athens on Monday about bringing money to help Greece out of its deepest financial crisis in decades. Introducing a member of his delegation during a meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias, Biden said: "This man represents the Treasury department. He's brought hundreds of millions of dollars." His comments drew laughs from both the Greek and U.S. delegations." It...

In 2008, the United States government and Federal Reserve helped bailout European banks to the tune of trillions of dollars.  The reactions to this by Congress and the public ensured that any future bailouts would have to be performed through the use of a proxy institution. It appears that this proxy institution has been found, as the IMF on November 22nd just opened a new credit facility with the primary purpose of providing liquidity to sovereign nations, especially those currently in the Euro Zone. IMF talking points on new credit facility * IMF APPROVES CREDIT LINE PROGRAM CHANGES TO PROVIDE...

Some Political Reality Checks For The Latest Batch Of Euro Rumors Global Macro Monitor Nov. 28, 2011, 6:49 AM Politics has been and will be the constraint on the latest iteration of Bailout Europe 4.0. We at the Global Macro Monitor really want to see Europe make it, for markets to rally, and for all to make money. But the latest bailout announcement, which includes a Euro 600 billion loan facility from the IMF, which, by the way, exceeds the Fund’s total lending currently around $400 billion, doesn’t pass the political smell test. There are also rumors swirling of a...

The International Monetary Fund is being lined up potentially to help Italy and Spain amid growing fears that a European rescue scheme will not be able to prop up the countries, it emerged last night. Reports in Italy suggested that the IMF is drawing up plans for a €600 billion (£517 billion) assistance package for the country. Spain may be offered access to IMF credit, rather than a rescue package, to avoid it being “picked off” by the markets in the coming weeks.

May 14, 2011, was a horrendous day for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund and leading contender to unseat Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France in the April 2012 elections. Waking up in the presidential suite of the Sofitel New York hotel that morning, he was supposed to be soon enroute to Paris and then to Berlin where he had a meeting the following day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He could not have known that by late afternoon he would, instead, be imprisoned in New York on a charge of sexual assault. He would then be...

May 14, 2011, was a horrendous day for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund and leading contender to unseat Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France in the April 2012 elections. Waking up in the presidential suite of the Sofitel New York hotel that morning, he was supposed to be soon enroute to Paris and then to Berlin where he had a meeting the following day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He could not have known that by late afternoon he would, instead, be imprisoned in New York on a charge of sexual assault. He would then be...

Like it or not—and many of us don't like it at all -- U.S. taxpayers are helping to bail out Greece and the rest of the financially-distressed euro zone. The International Monetary Fund has committed to providing the Europeans with a financing package totaling about 250 billion euros. The portion provided by American taxpayers, based on our 17.09% share of contributions to the IMF, is now at least $54 billion. A handful of congressional Republicans steeped in the fiscal conservatism of the Tea Party have been agitating against backdoor U.S. bailouts for several years. In May 2010, for instance, Reps....

Special IMF Money Considered By IAN TALLEY and DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS CANNES, France—World leaders are actively considering mandating the International Monetary Fund to print more of its special currency to help solve the euro-zone crisis, according to several people familiar with the matter. Asking the IMF to print more of its Special Drawing Rights—essentially an IOU that countries can exchange for cash—is one of the ways the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries is considering supplementing European efforts to stem the debt crisis that is threatening to spark a global financial meltdown and another recession. G-20 leaders are pressing euro...

The currency bloc’s leaders are expected on Wednesday to OK beefing up the 440 billion euro ($613 billion) European Financial Stability Facility — without euro zone countries offering more money. Instead, the EFSF would create a SPIV to sell debt — to the IMF, sovereign wealth funds and private investors — to raise funds to buy up ailing European sovereign debt. In other words, Europe wants the U.S., China and the Mideast to come to its rescue without Germany, France or other “rich” euro zone members ponying up more cash.

A police chief who hoped to guard Dominique Strauss-Kahn if he became President of France organised an orgy with him in a Paris hotel, it was claimed today. The senior officer is also said to have accompanied prostitutes to New York to meet up with Mr Strauss-Kahn when he was in charge of the International Monetary Fund. The well-sourced allegations about Jean-Christophe Lagarde are not only deeply embarrassing for Mr Strauss-Kahn, but point to wide-scale corruption at the heart of French political life. Sleaze allegations: Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves a Paris polling station today after voting in the Socialist Party's election...

European officials have rejected key recommendations from the United States and the International Monetary Fund, casting doubt on whether an emerging plan to address the region’s financial crisis will be as broad or fast acting as hoped. As crisis negotiations continued this weekend, European officials said they had reached general agreement on a response they were confident would restore faith in European banks and government finances. The detailed plan to be agreed on by European officials next weekend “will be decisive,” French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said Saturday as he concluded a two-day session of finance ministers from the Group...

The U.S. plans on being an active partner as efforts intensify to get Europe get back on its feet financially, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC Friday. Getty Images U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner With global leaders preparing for next month's Group of 20 nations (G20) summit in Cannes, France, the International Monetary Fund — of which the U.S. is the greatest contributor — is being relied on to help underwrite whatever efforts are needed to backstop toxic European sovereign debt . Geithner said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has "very substantial" resources to fund a device that could look...

An International Monetary Fund official said Wednesday, the global lender could buy Spanish or Italian bonds alongside a euro zone bailout fund, but he later appeared to back away from his own suggestion. Antonio Borges, the IMF's European head, told a news conference the IMF could possibly "invest alongside the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) . We would certainly be ready to play that role." Earlier in the day, he said Europe needs between 100 billion and 200 billion euros ($134 billion to $266 billion) to recapitalize its banks to win back investor confidence. Later, however, Borges issued a statement...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was brought face to face on Thursday with the French writer who has accused him of trying to rape her eight years ago.    In two hours of police questioning, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, continued to deny any wrongdoing, one of his lawyers said. Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his accuser, Tristane Banon, were questioned together at a French police station as investigators sought to compare their versions of events and extract further information on the case. They met for the first time since Mr. Strauss-Kahn was arrested in the United States in May...

Christine Lagarde has signalled that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may have to tap its members – including Britain – for billions of pounds of extra funding to stem the European debt crisis. Photo The head of the IMF has warned that its $384bn (£248bn) war chest designed as an emergency bail-out fund is inadequate to deliver the scale of the support required by troubled states. In a document distributed to the IMF steering committee at the weekend, Ms Lagarde said: "The fund's credibility, and hence effectiveness, rests on its perceived capacity to cope with worst-casescenarios. Our lending capacity of...

The head of the IMF has warned that its $384bn (£248bn) war chest designed as an emergency bail-out fund is inadequate to deliver the scale of the support required by troubled states. In a document distributed to the IMF steering committee at the weekend, Ms Lagarde said: "The fund's credibility, and hence effectiveness, rests on its perceived capacity to cope with worst-casescenarios. Our lending capacity of almost $400bn looks comfortable today, but pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries and crisis bystanders."

IMF Issues Brand New Warning About The Massive Risks To The Banking System Joe Weisenthal Sep. 21, 2011, 9:37 AMReleased this morning by the IMF. A new statement on huge risks to the banking sector. ------------------------------ * Weak growth, balance sheets and political resolve cause crisis of confidence * Large number of countries effected by government debt risks * Policymakers need to act to repair household, government and financial balance sheets Financial stability risks have risen sharply in recent months, as slower economic growth, market turbulence in Europe, and the credit downgrade of the United States have weighed on the...

IMF: World economy enters 'dangerous new phase' By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER WASHINGTON (AP) — The world economy has entered a "dangerous new phase," according to the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. As a result, the international lending organization has sharply downgraded its economic outlook for the United States and Europe through the end of next year.

<p>PARIS (Dow Jones)--The former International Monetary Fund's Managing Director, Dominique Strauss Kahn, Sunday said Greece is unable to pay its debt and its creditors will have to take losses on the debt they hold.</p> <p>"Greece got poorer, we can say Greeks will pay on their own, but they can't," Strauss Kahn said in an interview on French TV channel TF1. "There is a loss and it must be taken by governments and banks," he said.</p>

Dominique Strauss-Kahn admitted a “moral fault” and expressed regret to his family and the French people but continued to strongly protest his innocence against accusations that he sexually assaulted a chambermaid in a New York hotel in May, in his first interview since the case was dropped last month. The former head of the International Monetary Fund definitively ruled out running as a candidate in the French presidential election next year as a result of the scandal. “I wanted to be a candidate, but that is behind me. I am not a candidate for anything. I will take time to...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund who returned to Paris after New York prosecutors dropped charges of attempted rape against him, will be interviewed on Sunday on France’s most-watched news program, a spokesman at the TF1 television channel said. It will be Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s first interview since his arrest in New York in May. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who had been considered a strong rival to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in the 2012 presidential election, is expected to be asked about his political future, the future of his party and the current crisis of the euro, among...

<p>So far, at least $58 billion has been promised to the four countries - $38 billion from development banks through 2013 and more than $20 billion from the G-8 and the wealthy Arab countries.</p> <p>The money is intended to help support "transparent, accountable government" and "sustainable and inclusive growth" in North Africa and the Middle East, according to a statement from the nine international and regional lenders who pledged the $38 billion.</p>

We briefly recap, for your convenience: Item: Dominique Strauss-Kahn is temporarily and falsely accused of sexually assaulting a hotel "maid" in New York City. "DSK" is eventually released, but not before being summarily removed as head of the International Monetary Fund. Item: Christine Lagarde, top Chicago labor/antitrust lawyer, finds herself in charge of the global monetary authority. Item: DSK is on record against using the IMF "as a fist" to bully nations (such as Iceland or perhaps Germany) into making loan guarantees. Lagarde gives no indications of suffering any such scruples. Item: At the annual Jackson Hole Fed Economic Summit,...

No sooner does former top Chicago labor/anti-trust lawyer, now IMF head Christine Lagarde instruct "the US and Europe to abandon fiscal austerity and switch to stimulus measures" than European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet echoes her, saying...threats to the euro region have worsened and inflation risks have eased, giving officials the option to take further action should the debt crisis worsen... We paraphrase ourselves because the eggheads at these central banks have been paraphrasing Christine Lagarde since she issued the marching orders to the world's two economic powerhouses from Jackson Hole. Falling right in behind, Chicago Fed president Evans has...

Iceland says it was "bullied" over bank debt Sun, Sep 4 2011 REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland's president accused European countries on Sunday of having bullied it into agreeing to guarantee repayment of the debts of a failed bank, reviving a dispute with Britain and the Netherlands whose citizens are owed billions.

Greece has been dealt a blow in its attempts to secure a second bail-out after talks with its international lenders were suspended over concerns that Athens has fallen behind on its deficit-reduction programme. Finance minister Evangelos Venizelos Finance minister Evangelos Venizelos admitted today that Greece would have to revise its budget deficit target for this year – a key condition for continued funding of the original €110bn (£96bn) rescue package. A statement from the International Monetary Fund, which is providing a third of the funds, confirmed the "mission has temporarily left Athens to allow the authorities to complete technical work...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief, has been described as "mentally ill" by Michel Rocard, France's highly respected former prime minister. The 81-year-old elder statesman of the Socialist party delivered his damning verdict in a live TV interview on Monday night. Mr Rocard - French prime minister from 1988 to 1991 - said it was “clearly medical problems” that drove Mr Strauss-Kahn to become embroiled in repeated sex scandals. The 63-year-old former head of the International Monetary Fund was recently freed from charges of trying to rape a hotel chambermaid in New York. Guinea-born maid Nafissatou Diallo, 32, has launched...

The most efficient solution would be mandatory substantial recapitalization—seeking private resources first, but using public funds if necessary. One option would be to mobilize EFSF or other European-wide funding to recapitalize banks directly, which would avoid placing even greater burdens on vulnerable sovereigns.

Prosecutors are reportedly set to ask a judge to abandon the case against Dominique Strauss Kahn. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is preparing to ask that all charges against the former head of the IMF accused of attempting to rape hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo are dropped Tuesday. Such requests from the DA 'are never denied', an expert told the New York Post meaning Strauss-Kahn could finally return to his home country after being forced to remian in the U.S for months.

The prosecutors in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal will meet the hotel maid accusing the former IMF chief of sexual assault on Monday, in a sign the case may be headed for dismissal. Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, said the Manhattan district attorney's office requested in a letter that Diallo meet with them at 3 p.m. The letter also said that, if she failed to appear, prosecutors would assume she was not interested in discussing the case, Wigdor said. 'This is just another piece of evidence demonstrating what may be the ultimate outcome of this case,' Wigdor...

It isn’t exactly surprising news, but it is news nonetheless: The hotel maid who was allegedly assaulted by former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Monday filed a long-awaited civil suit against “DSK,” accusing him of a “violent and sadistic” sexual attack that has done her permanent damage. The lawsuit by Nafissatou Diallo comes on the heels of her decision to speak publicly in media interviews and at a news conference about the alleged attack by Strauss-Kahn after she entered his suite on May 14.  Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office are still investigating whether to pursue or...

Guest Post - WhistleblowerIRL - The Show Must Go On. The first casualty of war is the truth. The second - in our present war, the war of the financial elite and banks against nations and their citizens - seems to be the rule of law The robo signing scandal in America is like an efflorescence of fungus covering and rotting civil trust and accountability in American civil life. Here in Europe it is no better. One of the many many things that has convinced me of this rather sweeping statement is following the details of the WhistleblowerIRL saga. WhistelblowerIRL's...

• Private lenders to contribute €37bn to second Greek bail-out • Deal paves way for European monetary Fund and economic integration • Debt interest rates cut for Greece, Ireland and Portugal • Equity and debt markets rise on back of historic deal • 'We now have a programme and a package of decisions which create a sustainable path for Greece’ - Greek prime minister George Papandreou Greece is set to lead the eurozone's first-ever default as European leaders agreed that the private holders of Greek debt will take a hit of €50bn over three years. Breaking weeks of deadlock, the...

When it comes to selling copy, it’s a good bet that sex trumps multilateral finance. That’s an axiom of human nature. It would be asking too much to expect that the media, or its customers, would be as fascinated by the in-house diplomacy of the International Monetary Fund as all concerned have been by the scandal surrounding the recently handcuffed and dethroned IMF managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Most eyes are now on the prosecutor’s cratering case, the curious past of the maid who alleged the sexual assault, and the media now analyzing its own coverage of these sordid events. But...

James Pethokoukis of Reuters published a chart Tuesday demonstrating exactly why all the hysteria about a debt default or missing Social Security check payments is a bunch of nonsense. If America's news outlets were actually interested in disseminating the truth rather than fear-mongering, this chart or something like it would be part of every report involving the debt ceiling: What this chart created by the securities firm Goldman Sachs perfectly demonstrates is that there are ample tax receipts coming to the Treasury in August to pay the interest on our debt, Social Security, Medicare, and "essential" defense costs.

WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund's new chief foresees "real nasty consequences" for the U.S. and global economies if the U.S. fails to raise its borrowing limit. Christine Lagarde, the first woman to head the global lending institution, said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it would cause interest rates to rise and stock markets to fall. That would threaten an important IMF goal, which is preserving stability in the world economy, she said.

The IMF is delighted to announce that it just approved a €3.2 billion disbursement of cash for Greece, its fifth, as part of the €12 billion in money that Greece needs in order to continue operating in the months f July and August. And just for what purpose will this money be used, one may ask? Well, as explained a few weeks ago, in Greek Math: €12 Billion In, €18.2 Billion Out the entire amount will be promptly recycled by global financial institutions in the form of debt maturities and interest payments, which amount to €18.2 billion in the months...

I was tempted to lead with the Post’s bombshell about her supposedly doing a little, ahem, business on the side with some of the hotel’s guests — allegedly with the knowledge of her union(!) — but that leak came from a “source close to the defense investigation.� Could be a lie designed to drum up public pressure on the prosecution to drop the charges.What’s the motive for this, though? Twenty-eight hours after a housekeeper at the Sofitel New York said she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, she spoke by phone to a boyfriend in an immigration jail in Arizona....