The FT has been speaking to Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister tipped to become managing director of the
IMF. A few salient points emerge from it. First, she has more than a dash of hard-nosed Gallic defiance. Responding to the charge of a lack of a qualification in economics, she reiterated the
comments she made to the Today programme earlier in the years:
“From what I know of the job, I think I can do it. One of the qualities that people recognise in me is my ability to reach out, to try to build a consensus, to bring people to the common interest while still being a very firm and no nonsense person.”
Her empathy is well documented, as is her sympathy for all things American. The FT reveals that she owes her politics to an exchange scheme in America; she also worked for Baker&McKenzie, rising to be their Global Chairman in Chicago.
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