“France is used to prodigies, and loves them, and this past week put the spotlight on a particularly exceptional specimen of the genre, with the nomination by President François Hollande of a new economy minister. Emmanuel Macron is just 39 years old and has already done all the right things, and done them brilliantly. He is what the French like to call, instead of risking the arrogance or obviousness of prodigy, a “young man in a hurry.”
Macron is perfect even in his imperfections, but one of the aspects of the new economy minister’s achievement that the French public seems most interested in — arguably obsessed with, and in many instances troubled by — is one that might not only seem banal to Americans, but might reassure them. Along with being an award-winning pianist, a brilliant philosophy major, and a tango dancer, Emmanuel Macron is also a former investment banker…”
