(Bloomberg) --
Christine Lagarde’s first major speech as European Central Bank president suggests every intention of sticking with her trademark style of using colorful cultural references.
The remarks on Friday, entitled “The Future of the Euro Area Economy,” began with an optimistic quote from The Cocktail Party, a play by 20th century poet T.S. Eliot, while judiciously avoiding any mention of his bleak masterwork, The Waste Land. She went on to cite St. Francis of Assisi.
The speech continues her personal tradition of embellishing her comments by dropping names that don’t directly relate to economic policy. In her initial Nov. 4 speech in honor of former German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, Lagarde referred to the philosopher John Stuart Mill. At the farewell event for her predecessor, Mario Draghi, she cited lyrics by Leonard Cohen.
Lagarde did much the same during her stint running the International Monetary Fund, when her quotes ranged from the artist Frida Kahlo to Japanese proverbs.
On Friday, she started out with T.S. Eliot’s observation that “every moment is a fresh beginning.” Her remarks, which called for a “new European policy mix,” ended with wisdom attributed to St. Francis.
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
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