Pave: More Jack Shack Legacy

Le jour 193 de Sarko

Oh! [Pause.] Ouch!

LE FINANCIAL TIMES DONNE UN BONNET D’ÂNE À LAGARDE
Elle arrive bonne dernière du classement des performances des ministres
de l’Economie de la zone euro, établi par le quotidien économique.
15 novembre 2007 (Figaro)

[FINANCIAL TIMES GIVES DUNCE CAP TO LAGARDE
She Places Dead Last* In Ranked Performance Of Eurozone
Finance Ministers, According To The Business Daily.]

The FT rankings can be found here.

GERMAN FINANCE MINISTER BEST IN EUROPE, FRENCH WORST

LONDON November 16, 2007 (AFP) - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck is the best finance minister in Europe, while France's Christine Lagarde has to settle for last place, according to a Financial Times league table Thursday.

... "France's fiscal recalcitrance continues to raise eyebrows across the rest of Europe, while the hyperactivity of Nicolas Sarkozy – especially in economic affairs, creates confusion about who is really running the show," the FT said.

Poor Mdm. la Ministre. FT has since sobered up from its earlier gush over Mdm. Lagarde -- but is she deserving of last place?

FT uses five criteria over a 5-year period -- longer than most finance ministers' tenures -- in its calculations. The spread between first place (Peer Steinbrück, Germany: 25) and last place (Mdm. Lagarde, France: 45.1) is 20.1 points. The spread between last place and next to last (Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, Portugal: 36**) is 9.1 points -- almost half the distance to first place. Pave doesn't know precisely how FT sorted all the ministers out, but we do think that with less than seven months on the job after inheriting the Jack Shack's banjaxed France (and here and here), well, we do think Mdm. Lagarde deserves a break. She has done much to re-shape the economic debate, preferring plain talk to the souffléd double-talk*** of the French political class.

Mdm. la Ministre appears to be paying a penalty just for representing France, a baneful association, which Pave admits colors any judgment.

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* Twelfth of the thirteen nations using the euro. Slovenia goes missing because "it has yet to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which, among other tasks, compiles comparable tax figures – so had to be excluded from the guides."

*** Examples here, here, here, and here, to cite but four.

PFFT (What is this?): Holding up the bottom 1½ | Rayonnement français 0