You know, when I sit in meetings and things are very tense and people take things extremely seriously and they invest a lot of their ego, I sometimes think to myself, 'Come on, you know, there's life and there's death and there is love.' And all of that ego business is nonsense compared to that.
Christine LagardeIf climate change issues are not adequately addressedโif we keep running those nice energy subsidies, if the price on carbon is not adequately set, if policymakers donโt have it on their radar screensโthen financial stability in the medium and long-term is clearly at stake.
Christine LagardeThe difficulty that negotiators have is often based on the cultural difference that various countries have.
Christine LagardeWe draw many benefits from globalization that people take for granted. Poverty has been reduced massively around the world. If you look at the Chinese numbers, it is quite mind-boggling: 700 million people taken out of poverty in a matter of 40 years, the poverty rate having moved from over 30 per cent from hardly six per cent now. That would not have happened if there had not been globalization.
Christine LagardeIf you have an overwhelming majority of one sex over the other, and clearly in our case at the moment - and it has been like this for a long time - it is male over female, you tend to have group thinking. You tend to have common references, combined with competition, combined in this case with testosterone. I'm not suggesting it's a toxic mix, but I'm saying it needs to be tempered and altered and modified and made better by diversity.
Christine Lagarde