La chute de DSK, le FMI et la Grèce

La chute de DSK, le FMI et la Grèce

Dans le Guardian du 17 juin 2011, Ian Traynor publie un article sur le changement abrupt de politique du FMI vis-à-vis de la Grèce et de la crise européenne à la suite de l’arrestation de DSK et de sa démission de la direction du FMI. L’article (Philip Inman pour cette partie) présente son successeur par intérim, John Lipsky, comme un économiste strictement aligné sur l’“école de Chicago” hyper libéraliste de Milton Friedman, et un idéologue inflexible dans ce sens. Inman donne ces précisions étonnantes sur l’intérim de Lipsky, comme étant peu prisé par ce dernier : «He announced his intention to retire a day before Strauss-Kahn was accused of attempted rape. A week later, he reluctantly agreed to run the organisation as interim boss.»

Le résultat net reste que Lipsky, propulsé à la tête du FMI pour quelques semaines, intervient au moment de la crise grecque et impose une politique extrêmement rigoureuse. Traynor présente des détails exclusifs sur les conditions dans lesquelles cette nouvelle politique s’est développée ces dernières semaines.

«…But the alleged attempted rape of a chambermaid by Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a plush Manhattan hotel suite last month may also have compounded Europe's year-long currency crisis, with the fate of the euro and the continent's big banks hinging on how – and if – Greece can be saved from sovereign default for the second time in a year.

»As intense bargaining continued behind the scenes over Europe's response to the escalating Greek turmoil, the Guardian has learned that the change in leadership at the top of the International Monetary Fund last month also brought an abrupt shift in IMF style and policy on Europe's bailout of Greece.

»Just as it was becoming clear that last year's 110bn (£97bn) rescue had failed and that a similar sum would be needed to forestall a Greek sovereign default and a calamitous impact on exposed European banks, the IMF presented the German government with an ultimatum: deliver iron-clad guarantees on a new Greek bailout and put a figure on the sums needed, or there will be no release of IMF funds for Greece next month, risking a default by Athens.

»Senior officials involved in the high-stakes negotiations say that the turning point came in the elegant resort of Deauville on the Normandy coast late last month, where Nicolas Sarkozy hosted Barack Obama and other world leaders at a G8 summit.

»Strauss-Kahn had stood down the previous week following his New York arrest. His temporary replacement as head of the IMF, John Lipsky, went to France to force the hand of the Germans, the key players in the bailout drama.

»Strauss-Kahn had been a central figure in the euro crisis and had won plaudits for his role as a political fixer, and as a skilled French politician. Lipsky, an American, was less silky, much blunter. On the margins of the Deauville summit, he negotiated with the government of Angela Merkel, and with Herman Van Rompuy of Belgium – who will chair yet another crisis EU summit next week as president of the European Council…»

Conclusion de Traynor pour ce moment de la crise grecque, européenne, de l'euro et du Système... «Germany is increasingly isolated and the fallout from a year of culture clashes over Greece and the euro has done immense, probably lasting damage to the EU. “It's been a real political stress test for Europe,” said a senior EU official. “There is support fatigue in the north and reform fatigue in the south. If it lasts a lot longer, it will really erode the European project.”»

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