Lagarde

I hear that Lagarde has a long way to go before those watching her performance as the new managing director of the IMF will accept that she is not totally out of her depth. She is after all a lawyer and as we all know lawyers can't count. Perhaps it is unnecessary for the managing director of the IMF to be able to count as no doubt there are others within the organisation who can do this task for her but it is always useful to have a feel for when the bean counters have made a miscalculation. What though of her knowledge of economics? Again I imagine it is not absolutely necessary for the managing director to be an expert but it would be a comfort to know that Lagarde had an idea of whether she is a keynesian or a hayekian for example. Margaret Thatcher had an idea about which way she lent philosophically on economics but it seems Lagarde doesn't have that feel. A pity since with the euro going south it would be comforting to have someone in Lagarde's position who not only had a point of view but who was prepared to argue strongly for its implementation and who did not see the role of the IMF to save the euro. The euro is a mess and despite the will of the eurocrats to try and save it in its present form by introducing a fiscal union we can only hope that it is destroyed and the eurocrats with it. That is the only way we are likely to get what we should always have aimed for i.e. a group of independent states trading amongst themselves in a free trade area.