Christine Lagarde was in the news last week speaking about interest rates.  Mme. Lagarde is President of the European Central Bank, a position she has held for three years.  Prior to that position, she was Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund for eight years.  Forbes Magazine once named her the ninth most powerful woman in the world and the thirty-ninth most powerful individual.

In 2012, she was the graduation speaker at the Harvard Kennedy School, and I met her at a lunch in her honor the day before.  The next morning, I was stopped by a young man as I was walking into the school.  “Excuse me Madame Lagarde,” he said in his French-accented English.  It is true that Madame Lagarde and I are both tall, slim, and gray-haired, but she is nearly twenty years younger.  None-the-less, I was amused (and he was embarrassed).

So, when her picture appeared in the paper last week, I took a very close look.

That young man would not make the same mistake today.