The global financial panic triggered by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008 restored the Washington-based IMF's relevance as emergency loans soared to a record of $91.7 billion last year from $1.1 billion in 2007.
Group Of 20
Strauss-Kahn gained backing from the Group of 20 to triple the IMF's resources, and the group has over the past two years given the agency a host of new missions to help avoid another crisis. The IMF is helping the G-20 single out countries whose policies threaten global growth, and has also submitted proposals to fortify the international monetary system.
More recently, Strauss-Kahn played a key role in efforts to stem the European debt crisis which started last year in Greece, with a pledge to contribute about a third of future bailouts in the region by the European Union. The IMF has co-funded aid packages to Greece and Ireland. He had been scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday.
Under Strauss-Kahn, the IMF also approved a plan that will make China the third-strongest voice in the 187-member organization, founded in 1945, while weakening Europe's influence to make room for emerging countries.
Strauss-Kahn has juggled careers as an economics professor, lawyer and Socialist politician. He holds a law degree and a doctorate in economics from the University of Paris.
Elected In 1986
In 1986, he was elected to France's National Assembly and served as industry minister from 1991 to 1993. He returned to office as finance minister under Premier Lionel Jospin in 1997. He cut France's budget deficit to less than 3 percent in 1999, the level required for euro membership.
In November 1999, he resigned as finance minister after magistrates began an investigation into financial irregularities at MNEF, a French student-insurance group. The probe covered an allegation that the company had paid him about $100,000 from 1994 to 1996 for legal work on a property deal which he never performed. Strauss-Kahn denied wrongdoing and was cleared by a Paris court in November 2001.