Lagarde leaving the ECB early

von Jolyon: Christine Lagarde

The part that nags at me is the calendar. Christine Lagarde will step down from the European Central Bank on February 7, 2027, which lands nine months before her term was supposed to run out, and her explanation is that she wants the room to say what she thinks about politics and world affairs. Sure. Still, an early exit like that raises a question, and the answer could be nothing, or it could be that she's read something the public hasn't. What gets left behind is the sales job she ran for years aimed at 450 million Europeans: a digital euro overseen by central bankers, a currency that hardly anyone was clamoring for, and one still sitting in political talks where nobody can promise it launches at all. Add her long resistance to Bitcoin during that stretch, and you get the odd picture of the project's loudest backer heading for the door before the thing has even started. There is a wry sort of comedy in years of telling people off about Bitcoin, then clocking out before the alternative is usable. What if the digital euro ends up retiring right along with her?