When Lagarde took over the IMF from scandal-deposed countryman Dominique-Strauss Kahn in 2011, her overriding mission was to restore calm and stability to the organization’s mightily shaken staff. She did that, but has gone much farther. Lagarde has acted as one of the main leaders of the international “troika” [the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission] defining bail out funds and austerity conditions for debt-swamped euro nations. She’s ideally placed to do so. As a fellow European, she is fully aware that cost-cutting continental societies won’t accept imposed dismantling of their welfare systems; as a realistic international finance official, Lagarde knows how to get lenders to bend on debt forgiveness without pushing so hard they bolt negotiations.