Draghi should replace Lagarde at the IMF

The departing ECB president Draghi(pic) is certainly qualified.

Christine Lagarde’s nomination as president of the European Central Bank (ECB) takes Mario Draghi a step closer to the end of his term. The Italian academic will step down in October after eight momentous years, during which he made the ECB the most important institution in the monetary union.That doesn’t mean, however, that he should retire from front-line policymaking. A job swap with Lagarde, which would see Draghi become the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), would be a boon for the global economy.

The departing ECB president is certainly qualified. He has a strong background in economics – something that Lagarde lacked but which many IMF bosses had before her. He also has a track record of managing crises effectively and building political consensus around his decisions. The euro’s survival amid the sovereign debt crisis at the start of this decade was due largely to Draghi’s promise to do “whatever it takes” to protect the single currency.