Date: 2025-07-02 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027892
ECONOMICS
CJRISTINE LAGARDE
European Central Bank President, Christine Lagarde
on Europe's economic outlook
CJRISTINE LAGARDE
European Central Bank President, Christine Lagarde
on Europe's economic outlook
Original article: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/european-central-bank-president-christine-lagarde-on-europes-economic-outlook/
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Christine Lagarde has been on my radar for a long time as one of the most intelligent people in the world of high finance.
This is in sharp contrast to the top management people who have been at the top of the US Federal Reserve for the past decade. This is not entirely their fault ... the mandate that they are having to work with is quite limited and quite wrong!
The idea that the US dollar of 1900 was worth a dollar ... but the US dollar of 2025 is perhaps just 3 cents in the currency value of 1900 sets me up for a confusion that I find impossible to explain!
When I was an economics student at Cambridge University in 1960, there was talk of a good life and working perhaps just 30 hours a week. But political and business leaders have delivered instead a global economy where a decent living standard requires a family to have two working adults and working hours nearer 80 hours a week then 40 hours a week!
The top economic advisors to government around the world during my adult lifetime ... 1960 to now ... have got it completely wrong. Meanwhile the 'opportunity' to have a far better world is within reach, but being missed in large part because profit is the dominant business goal together with wealth growth for investors. Meanwhile other key issues like quality of life and environmental sustainability are ignored and doing dangerous damage!
Europe is doing better than the USA ... which is encouraging.
But worse, President Trump has a goal of reversing almost all the good practices that President Biden encouraged. For me, Trump is the perfect example of an ignorant buffoon with massive power! I don't know how he can be constrained ... but if he is allowed to implement his crazy ideas, the USA is in deep trouble. It is unclear if Trump has the political mandate to do truly foolish things ... but it is quite clear that he will try!
Peter Burgess
On Wednesday, October 23, at 10:00 a.m. ET, the Atlantic Council will host a virtual #ACFrontPage event featuring Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB). Lagarde will offer insights into the ECB’s recent moves to tackle inflation in the euro area. This fireside chat takes place during IMF-World Bank Week at the Atlantic Council and will be moderated by Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council.
The discussion comes at a pivotal moment, as central banks in advanced economies have begun cutting interest rates. Lagarde will address how the ECB is managing inflation while navigating an environment of structural challenges and geopolitical conflict.
This edition of #ACFrontPage, hosted by the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, will be livestreamed on Atlantic Council TV, YouTube, Facebook, and X. To join us virtually, please complete the registration form.
For more details on the Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center’s Bretton Woods 2.0 project and the full line-up of ministers and central bank governors joining the Atlantic Council for IMF-World Bank Week please visit this LINK.
An #ACFrontPage Event
Atlantic Council Front Page is our premier live ideas platform for global leaders to discuss the defining challenges of our time. #ACFrontPage is a high-level event series featuring top newsmakers across multiple digital platforms. Harnessing the convening power and expertise of the Council’s sixteen programs and centers, #ACFrontPage leverages the Council’s capabilities in social media, press, and digital outreach to spotlight the world’s most prominent leaders and the most compelling ideas across sectors and engage new audiences eager for nonpartisan and constructive solutions to current global challenges. This widely promoted program features the Council’s most important guests and content serving as the highlight of our programming.
Featuring: Christine Lagarde ... President, European Central Bank