Throughout his life, from a poor home in Paris through night-school classes in economics to his pre-Brussels spell as France's minister of finance, he has been a pragmatist who has got things done.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

He has studied and taught law in France and was dean of the law and economics faculty at the University of Dakar, Senegal.

BBC: Profile: Senegal's new president

Mr. MIKE ENGLUND (Founder and Director, Action Economics): Overnight, we found banks in Europe, and in France in particular, had liquidity issues, which raised the question: Are the problems we're facing here in the U.S. rippling through across overseas?

NPR: Financial Markets Tumble Amid Credit Crunch

INSEE, France's national economics institute, predicted that the economy would rebound strongly in the fourth quarter, having not grown at all in the third.

ECONOMIST: Overview

First, there was business school at France's highly ranked EDHEC in Lille, followed by study at the London School of Economics.

WSJ: The Arnault Legacy