Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Christine Lagarde Sounds the Alarm on Europe

 Christine Lagarde, IMF Chief
In a dramatic speech in Berlin this week, the IMF chief warned that the world could soon face another Great Depression, calling for a $1 trillion firewall in lending resources. As the world gathers in Davos to discuss the crisis, Lagarde talks exclusively to Newsweek's Christopher Dickey about her plan.

At a meeting that morning, the fund’s board heard that European countries were not doing the maximum necessary to stave off a financial implosion that could suck the life out of America’s anemic recovery and bring Western economies again to the brink of recession, or worse.

Christine Lagarde, the former French finance minister who has been at the top of the fund since last summer, sat at the head of the oblong ring of seats in a conference room lined with portraits of past IMF managing directors, all of them men. (Her immediate predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, resigned in the midst of a sex scandal last May; his painting has yet to be put up.) Lagarde listened calmly as the 24 representatives of 187 different countries took in the bleak news, delivered by one of her key aides. Good, she thought. The staff, which has its antennae everywhere, told what the whole truth is. From her point of view, that made it a positive meeting. “Telling truth is our job,” she said. There is still time to prevent a second collapse, she believes. But not much time.

Click here to see the whole article by Christopher Dickey about Christine Largarde

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