October 25, 2007
NyLon, a risky tale of twin city states
Column on the Financial Times comment page, October 25th
Among the British, the French have a reputation for arrogance so I was interested to hear Christine Lagarde, the new French finance minister, talking humbly this week in New York about Paris.
“We want to compete with London and New York. Not necessarily at the same level at the moment but we are not going to give up,” she said.
Ms Lagarde, with her shock of well-coiffed grey hair, fluent English, flagrant competence (she spoke in English and translated her remarks into French herself) and former job as chairman of an international law firm, is no Napoleon. She has been dubbed “an American in Paris” and would fit nicely at any meeting in the City of London or on Wall Street.
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