Christine Lagarde: The Woman Who Saved France

Eric Pape The Daily Beast March 11, 2010

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Stevens Frederic, Sipa / AP Photo The word’s No. 1 finance minister, Christine Lagarde, fought for strict banking regulations that sustained France while Europe melted down. Lagarde, who will speak at The Daily Beast’s Women in the World summit, talks to Eric Pape about her tough-love strategies.

France’s most powerful government ministers tend to be Old World figures. Many are officious, bombastic, self-satisfied, and prone to la langue de bois, which often refers to the spouting of elegantly phrased but hollow B.S.

And then there is Christine Lagarde, the nation’s glass ceiling-shattering economics minister. In 2007, she became the first woman ever to hold the top finance job in any of the world’s G-8 countries. For a time, she was also the sole lady at the helm of a finistry of Finance in any of 27 European Union nations. (A Spaniard and a Lithuanian have since joined her.) If you ask her why she was first, she will likely give you a self-deprecating response about how you just need to “work hard and pay attention to detail.” Pursue it further and she starts to convey part of the unique strength that can come from being the first woman with a seat at the big finance table. “I feel accountable to the community of women,” Lagarde says. “And I don’t want to fail because of them.”

“We have to regulate, temper, level, and balance,” Lagarde says. “In that way, maybe I am European and I am preaching the gospel to my colleagues on the other side of the pond.”

Whatever it is that drives Lagarde, it seems to be working. She is a ubiquitous presence on lists of the world’s most influential and powerful people put out by Forbes, Time magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. (She is edging ever closer to the top last year.) In her field, the Financial Times ranked her No. 1, the Finance Minister of the Year, in November. Given the importance of the economy in 2009, she may need to change fields to continue overachieving.

So when I recently placed my iPhone on her vast office conference table, a stone’s throw from the somber centuries-old columns of the Palais Bourbon, to record our conversation, I was surprised when the 54-year-old minister immediately began asking about the device. “Is that the latest generation? How long can it record?” she queried, pulling out her own iPhone. “This is the [recording] application you use?” By the time I said yes, she was speaking into her phone: “Test, test,” and then playing it back.

Yes, France’s minister of finance is a new breed. Many of her colleagues would surely be confused by the prospect of an iPhone interview, but she immediately seeks to integrate an innovation into her life. And she recently went further than that. Whereas her French colleagues might find the courage to conduct interviews with the most traditional old-school international media, Lagarde tempted fate on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show last fall—and won.

That said, Lagarde’s refreshing style wouldn’t grab much attention if she weren’t getting things done. She has been lauded for creativity, pragmatism, and stewardship during an era of economic turmoil that has riled the world. Ironically, she was brought in to this government to liberalize France’s economy and bolster economic growth. Doing this required convincing the French to work longer hours—in theory, for more money, but definitely with less job security. At the start of her tenure, she called on France to “roll up its sleeves and get to work.” She helped to eliminate more than 50,000 civil servants, trim $15 billion in taxes, gut the socialist-inspired 35-hour workweek, and chop the tax on the rich from 60 percent to 50 percent. For her efforts, she was branded the government’s “American” minister—as in a country where people live to work, have little job security, and unimaginable health-care concerns.

But after the extent of the global economic crisis became clear, Lagarde switched gears to push for regulations that helped to restrain banking world excesses (such as larger bonuses to top bankers who seek short-term gains that proved detrimental) and increase cash flows. You can disagree with her before or after her (likely temporary) conversion, but France appears to have weathered the economic crisis far better than its main European neighbors.

View as Single Page 12 Back to Top March 10, 2010 | 4:29pm Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Share | Emails | print var OutbrainPermaLink=document.location.href.replace(document.location.search, '').replace(/\/\d+\/$/,'/').replace(document.location.host, 'thedailybeast.com'); var OB_Template = "The Daily Beast"; var OB_demoMode = false; var OBITm = "1255455386150"; var OB_langJS ='http://widgets.outbrain.com/lang_en.js'; if ( typeof(OB_Script)!='undefined' ) OutbrainStart(); else { var OB_Script = true; var str = ''; document.write(str); } Christine Lagarde Sarkozy, Baker & Mckenzie, Christine Lagarde Eu, Christine Lagarde Economic Government, Christine Lagarde Economy, Christine Lagarde France, French Finance Minister, G8, Christine Lagarde, Eu, Nicolas Sarkozy, Economics, Politics (–) Show Replies Collapse Replies Sort Up Sort Down sort by date: winterparkmom

I watched an interview with her on Fareed last year at Davos. This womans common sense approach to stem the hemoraging of France's economy was enlightening and stupefying in it's simplicity. I wondered at the time, can we do a treasury secretary exchange program and switch her with Geithner?

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 9:04 pm, Mar 10, 2010 whipmawhopma

The French (collectively) are simply smarter than us (collectively) when it comes to handling money. Or so the evidence suggests.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 9:19 pm, Mar 10, 2010 octavio

The way things are any other country is smarter than the USA. What a shame they do not make women like that in the USA!. If it were up to the republicans; women in the USA would still be unable to vote.Most of them would be illiterate and people would still be buying and selling blacks! France has a single payer health care system;their people are happy and everybody likes them! The USA does not have a single payer health care system;their people are sick and very unhappy and nobody likes them. The only ones that are happy in the USA are the 1 or 2 % of the population that are very greedy and filthy rich.The USA large corporations which own most of the USA senators are extremely happy.Since they know that they can do whatever they want in the USA. We are in trouble since the USA is infested with crooks;especially in politics;political fraud is everywhere! This lady is the first woman finance minister and she put strict regulations and this worked for her. Barack Obama is the First black USA president.He could have done the same thing.But he screwed up;now it is going to take 500 more years until we elect another black as a president. George W.Bush told all USA banks --- you put me in power,and I will allow you to screw the USA taxpayers as much as you want --- and he did! We need to pass the single payer health care bill and we need to reform campaign contributions.Large greedy,crooked USA companies should not be financing all our politicians;e,g; large companies had been in charge of running John McCain's political campaigns for years,et cetera.

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 12:46 am, Mar 11, 2010 GPatton

That's what we need here in the US, a no-nonsense frog-type female running the show. She'd tell Summers, Geithner, etc. to pees off. George Patton

Flag It | Permalink | Reply 7:38 am, Mar 11, 2010 $('#c_total span').html('4'); $('#c_total').show(); Share this comment on Facebook

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The French (collectively) are simply smarter than us (collectively) when it comes to handling money. Or so the evidence suggests.

That's what we need here in the US, a no-nonsense frog-type female running the show. She'd tell Summers, Geithner, etc. to pees off. George Patton

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Christine Lagarde: The Woman Who Saved France

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