What is happening in the Eurozone is a continuation of the 'free-market' principles purveyed by the Chicago School of Economics. A warped school of thought designed to, at all costs, maintain it's ever growing grip on this planet's assets.

In 2002 Goldman Sachs laid the foundations to profit massively by hiding Greece's ballooning debt. At the time Greek debt could have been managed with reasonable adjustments but the Greek government were convinced that the current boom would allow them to grow out of the red with Goldman's 'help'. Knowing this was impossible Goldman traders' immediately shorted Greek Sovereign debt on the World Markets. The Greeks were duped and Goldman cashed in – this is not God's work. Having digested Goldman Sachs poison pill Greece now finds itself with unmanageable debt struggling GDP and massive bond speculation from yet more predatory speculators.
 

God's Work or Let Them Breathe?

During this time the IMF had a new type of leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Strauss-Kahn was a socialist who openly saw the value in maintaining high employment and aggressively protecting the middle class wealth. Pragmatically, he okay'd some serious non-socialist moves in the Greek crisis and according to Nouriel Roubini loudly decried a second bailout. Instead Strauss-Khan wanted to play hardball with the creditors forcing a re-negotiation of debts and rescheduling the payment structure. In turn this would allow the economy to save some jobs and potentially get back on its feet without decimating the population and society.

This plan was at total odds with the Neo-liberal dream of total privatisation. Most populations have a strong belief in public ownership of infrastructure and given the chance would never support an elected body that wanted to sell them off. The only thing stopping the family silver fire sale is another 'Left-leaning socialist' trying to ease the shock of the bailout. By forcing the debt holders into becoming more reasonable Strauss-Kahn was trying to let Greece and her people breathe.

Game Changing Moment

Then May 14th - the game changer. Now I am not going to pretend I know what happened that day but I will say what happened right afterwards handed a great advantage to those who opposed Strauss-Kahn and his efforts. During the news cycle US authorities leaked sensational misleading 'facts' across 24hr news channels and the perp walk in handcuffs became the image to the story.
 

At Sarkosy's handlers provocation the right-wing French media took him to task under the scrutinizing eye of the French public all of which are wary of the shrill knee-jerk American style tabloid journalism. This led to many questions and open discussions of a setup, especially since his public statements in the press on April 28th 2011, clearly stated that he was becoming a honey trap target – many knew about his weakness for women could topple his political vitality. Realising he had been outplayed Strauss-Kahn resigned, just 4 days after the unsubstantiated accusation, in the middle of his most crucial negotiations to get Greek debt restructured.

Enter Christine Lagarde French Finance Minister and former Chairwoman of the world's second largest corporate law firm Baker-Mackenzie. For reference Baker-Mackenzie is the company that fired the Tom Hanks character in the movie Philadelphia. He was sacked for being gay and they discovered this when he was diagnosed with AIDS.

But what do Baker Mackenzie specialise in? You guessed it, massive acquisitions for mega-corporations. In near unanimous approval, Christine was nominated and was glowingly endorsed by all right wing parties. Surprisingly, yet not so surprisingly, Legarde was to look at major foreign capital investments in China.
 

Don't Waste the Crisis...

The developing world and the newly powerful BRIC countries are long overdue adequate representation in the IMF but they were once again pushed aside in an accelerated replacement process. The IMF rushed out the announcement of her new position, and promptly created a new bailout for Greece, dropping the restructuring plan and ushering in the old style management, focused on stripping the public sector. The same plan will that will be rolled out in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy. Destroy pensions, loot the healthcare then sell off all national owned industries from airports to water companies - at bargain prices.
 

Two days after Strauss-Kahn was replaced the truth of accuser surfaced. At the perfectly timed court appearance evidence was released that showed the highly suspect and weak case against Strauss-Kahn. The accuser, who at first was painted as an image of North Africa piety in a Muslim hijab, was now more realistically assessed. Taped conversations in two separate incidences of criminal activity, one of which is a false rape accusation, the second is a conspiracy to extort financial gain from the alleged crime she claimed. And in my opinion the most damning, the hundreds of thousands of dollars from various sources deposited in her personal bank account prior to this event.

Was it a honey trap? Who knows? But at the very least they did not let the crisis go to waste – a lesson that Milton Friedman and the Chicago boys had drummed into all their loyal students. Replacing Strauss-Khan with Legarde is as radical a change as could be imagined. She is surely his political and ideological enemy and the way these events played out demonstrates the brutal truth of how global corporate might gets what it wants - regardless of what it takes.