MORE TROUBLE IN EUROPE – AT 9:36 A.M. ET:  In another blow to the concept of multinational agencies, a French court has come down hard on a major figure.  From The New York Times:

PARIS — Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was found guilty on Monday of criminal charges linked to the misuse of public funds during her time as France’s finance minister, a verdict that could force her out of her post.

Ms. Lagarde, who began her second five-year term at the I.M.F. in February, will not face any jail time, the judge said. The scandal has overshadowed her work at the fund, to which she was appointed in 2011, after Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director when he was accused of having sexually assaulted a maid in a New York City hotel.

The move is likely to destabilize the I.M.F. as it faces a host of thorny issues, including questions over its participation in a multibillion-dollar bailout for Greece and uncertainty about the United States’ role in the organization once Donald J. Trump becomes president in January.

The verdict was a surprise, after the prosecutor in the trial said last week that the case against her was “very weak” and did not appear to be enough to win a conviction. It is a theme prosecutors have previously repeated.

COMMENT:  The importance of this verdict is that it's one more example of an international figure acting in a high-handed way.  It is one more argument that will be used by those who argue, both in Europe and America, that government must be brought closer to the people. 

While the IMF is not the European Union, it has a similar symbolic status – an international body not directly accountable to democratic institutions.  In the next few years, France will decide whether to elect those who favor withdrawal from the EU, a step Britain has already taken.  Verdicts like this will indirectly hurt the EU cause.

December 19,  2016