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May 17, 2011 at 06:13 AM
Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn spent his third night in jail in New York after arrest on sexual assault charges when a judge denied him bail. The impact of the allegations could result in Europe losing its hold on the top job of the IMF, and PIMCO co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian said in a blog post on Tuesday that the turmoil over succession could have repercussions for peripheral euro zone nations.
Reuters reported that Judge Melissa Jackson denied Strauss-Kahn bail over concerns that he could be a flight risk. Headlines in his native France and elsewhere have been full of the story and concerns are that, whether the IMF chief is eventually cleared or not, his career may be over. The fallout from that would be wide-ranging, from the leadership of the IMF to the presidency of France, for which Strauss-Kahn was expected to run in 2012.
While his term as head of the IMF was to end in 2012, there is now a push to choose a successor by some countries within the organization. Others are counseling patience, until the charges are resolved, but the IMF’s temporary head, John Lipsky, had already said he would step down from his regular post in August. Senior Europeans at the IMF have also expressed the opinion that Lipsky would not be as influential in the matter of Europe’s debt crisis because he is an American.
