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Lagarde’s Gaffe Puts ECB Chief in Elite Club for Market Stumbles

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  • Bond-spread comment alarmed investors focused on Italy
  • Few central bankers avoid an occasional slip-up on words
ECB Can Front-Load Bond Purchases If Needed: Italy’s Visco

Christine Lagarde’s verbal faux pas on Thursday puts the European Central Bank chief in a distinguished club of global monetary officials whose words have inadvertently roiled financial markets.

The president’s comment that it’s not her institution’s job to close bond spreads seemed to undermine previous pledges to defend the integrity of the euro area, and sparked a record jump in Italian yields. That remark might yet earn a label as the gravest of such errors, though events surrounding the global panic could equally make it a mere footnote of the current crisis.