> Last fall, the IMF published a study in its World Economic Outlook that
> showed that fiscal austerity in the wake of the economic crisis would
> further contract demand and raise unemployment. This reversed the
> institution’s historic role; the IMF officially became a voice for expansion
> and employment rather than contraction and austerity.
>
> Of course the story at the country level was often quite different.
Indeed. There wasn't much evidence of a "voice for expansion and employment rather than contraction and austerity" in the IMF plan drawn up for Ireland last fall.
How likely is it that Strauss-Kahn would have ever got the job in the first place (and particularly that he would have had US support for the job) if there had ever been any prospect of him bringing in these kind of changes.