I originally thought that the IMF chief had simply chased a maid down the hall -- now that I know more I want to apologize for this completely inappropriate entry ...
As nations across the world have complained since the 90s, the IMF seems more interested in screwing them then actually helping them recover. And it appears the IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, took this charge too literally, chasing a maid down a hallway in his swanky New York hotel to try to, well, screw her in less ambiguous ways (CNN Story). The neoliberal, "Washington Consensus" policies propagated by the IMF since the 80s have been blamed by many (including Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz) for not only undermining the national sovereignty of developing and underdeveloped countries across the globe, but for making the situation of the countries and their citizens worse -- under the now almost absurd notion that liberalizing markets alone leads to economic growth and development. Under neoliberal policies (first envisioned by the Trilateral commission in the 70s), income inequality has grown, poverty has increased, the number of crises has risen and instability and insecurity have become the norm. But some multinational corporations and capitalists have done quite well under these policies, so it's probably a wash in the end. And if the chief of the IMF is going to screw all of us, maybe we should be happy he's at least trying to personalize the experience.
Footnote: I'm not making light of the horrible situation the housekeeper was put in, of course. It was just too compelling a metaphor to ignore.
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