There are many things about the European institutions that I am very proud of. The way the top jobs are distributed in a stitch-up behind closed doors is not one of them. The recent appointments do at least meet one key criteria, that more of the senior posts are going to women.
Let’s begin with probably the best-known figure: Christine Lagarde. After seven years at the helm of the International Monetary Fund she is crossing the Atlantic to head up the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.
This is in many ways the most worrying appointment, not only because of her strongly conservative and neoliberal policy bent, but simply because she is not qualified for the role. A lawyer rather than economist or banker, Lagarde has headed up the IMF as a political rather than technocratic figure. Before her appointment in 2012 she admitted: “I’m not the top-notch economist; I can understand what people talk about, I have enough common sense for that, and I’ve studied a bit of economics, but I’m not a super-duper economist.” So if and when the next Eurozone crisis hits, will she have the technical competence and financial expertise to inspire confidence in markets?
