I and my wife have watched the new appointee Christine Lagarde on TV dealing with the EU debt and another problems several times she is great performer. So good in fact to ignore Sauls Eslakes sensible arguments.

The IMF has no useful purpose.It is an institution of repression just like the World Bank,Bank of International Settlements and the US Federal Reserve.

Just 18 mths ago the IMF bragged about creating $1 trillion US from nothing and bailing out various institutions around the planet.How many trillions have they created since then?They are counterfeiting our currencies to expand their own wealth.They create money from nothing as debt and keep the masses in poverty.

The rumours are,the head of the IMF,Strauss Kahn, had to go because he was beginning to develop and conscience.

I fail to see why the author thinks this kind of elitist plugging for a mate has any relevance to us (most of us) ordinary mortals at OLO; or that we should care about or understand the counting bead game the neoliberal Castalians treat like the I Ching--as substitute for wealth and poverty, happiness and misery, life and death---most of us are still subject to these as actual realities.
I don't care how mainstream their pathetic world view is, with its futures fascinations and its faux humanitarianism; I despise all the fat cats and their fiscal "wisdom". I hope the debtor-nations break the IMF bank. The whole things just a piss-up on Grange to them; a house of cards that's getting ever-precariously higher. I say roll out the guillotine!

Saul, I think its just a question of time now. As economic might
moves to Asia, the Europeans and Americans will have to accept
reality as it is.

* I say roll out the guillotine!*

Ah Squeers, how easy it is to live the chardonay socialist lifestyle!

You don't live in a slum, you have all the benefits of the Australian
free enterprise system, you can live it up and pass smart arsed
comments as you sip your wine. All very easy really.

Yabby ,you don't know the meaning of socialist.The biggest socialist parasite on the planet is the central banking industry.They produce nothing and own almost everything.

Arjay,

The IMF has a purpose. It is the employment of graduates from schools of economics of which Paul Eslake is a specimen.

Skeptic. Note that Keating and Costello now have their hands up for a cushy IMF position.A horny chambermaid won't work with Keating however.Keating wants to be rewarded for selling off the Commonwealth Bank.Yep,rewarded for shafting his own country.

They are all tarred with the same brush of avarice at the expense of the masses.

Arjay, yes we know all about your version of voodoo economics!

Central banks, as other banks, have an important role to play.
They produce an important service.

Given your views, I can't for the life of me understand why
you just keep complaining on OLO. You are free to buy silver bars
and gold bars, if you wish. You are free not to use the banking
system, if you so wish. Its your choice really.

The salary as head of IMF is not that hot really, given the
the responsibility. Half a million a year would soon go, when
you have New York rents to pay. Few top wall street traders
would work for that. Some of our public servants earn that.

Both Keating and Costello would be great for the job

Yabby.All prostitutes think that they do a marvellous job.Personal deception is a universal human trait.

'Skeptic', if you want to make sarcastic comments about the types of employment for which I might in your eyes be suitable, at least get my name right. It's Saul, not Paul.

Even better, have the intestinal fortitude to provide your own name, rather than making snide comments behind the pusillanimous shield of anonymity.

And, as it happens, not having a Ph D I probably wouldn't get a look-in for an IMF staff position.