So, the person best qualified to be managing director of the International Monetary Fund turns out to be a European; and not just a European but another French politician. Quelle surprise.

The anointment of Christine Lagarde comes as the French political establishment is promoting a scheme to encourage banks to roll over large portions of their Greek debt. To many eyes, this idea looks a half-baked scheme that dances around the awkward fact that Greece is basically insolvent. So should we expect a hard-hitting sceptical analysis from the IMF of the French plan? Probably not.