European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde was France’s finance minister during the 2008 financial crisis. Later, she became managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Given her experience, her instincts in confronting coronavirus and the shock to the euro area’s economy will be to shoot high and go big. She will want to be seen as a European leader and doing ‘whatever it takes’. But Lagarde faces a dilemma. She knows that the ECB cannot act alone, and that decisive fiscal action would be far more potent than monetary policy measures. Her ‘owlish’ eyes at the 12 March ECB governing council meeting ... (full story)