is a pro bowl year for him the way it is going. they have not had a still position in the pro bowl for a long time. forte has another first down. not since marty booker in 2002 have they had a skill position player make it to the pro bowl, and the last running back was neal anderson. >> how about that run. watch it. how about all of these hop, jumps and restarts. jim: for those expect to see 60 minutes, you are watching the nfl on cbs, the chargers and the bears. first and 10. that is marion barber reversing course. and finally wrestled down by cason.

a gain of three. 60 minutes will be seen in its entirity immediately after the game expect on the west coast where it will be seen at its regularly scheduled time. phil: this game of course is not over. you know, but for a couple of plays the chargers have to be proud of what they have done, overcoming all of the obstacles and adversity today. jim: now inside of five minutes to go san diego has only two time-outs left and in danger of losing a fifth in a row. that is barber. he runs wildly. great aggression. he has another four years. even if this does not fall their way at the finish and they drop to 4-6, you have been saying all week it is not over for the chargers. phil: no.

let's build. of course they want to win the game but they look at that west, they did not say this to us this . is you and i talking about it, they can hang in there, win the division games and the schedule is not the roughest going down the stretch. they have to believe that they can still win the a.f.c. west. jim: they got a lot of the players that were injured. third down and 3 and the bears keep it going. forte off of the short screen. chris spencer with a nice block to free him. the clock keeps running. phil: what are you going to do? this is really clever. fake it to him. you think fullback in the flat. no. it is an inside screen. chris spencer, man, he is leading the way today down the field. clever outside screens, a lot of them today. the bears, that time inside. tough for a defense to defend that.

jim: that was good for 11 and they have converted seven straight third down situations. forte met at line of scrimmage. and they say the football is out. whistles are everywhere but they keep playing, do the chargers. brown decided to take it all the way home anyway. jim: let's see if there is any part of this. matthews forte, thought he was protecting the football. >> the runner is ruled down by contact and san diego has taken their second charged time-out. jim: well, i thought you were going to challenge. phil: i would not have taken the time-out.

challenge. jim: if you lost it would have just cost you the time-out anyway. looks like the knee may have looks like the knee may have been down. jim: ravens today win that divisional game with the bengals. big game by torrey smith and of course matthew stafford threw for five touchdowns as the lions beat carolina and carson palmer and the raiders win up in minnesota. raiders go to 6-4 and are in first in the a.f.c. west. stafford, huge afternoon. michael bush filling in for darren mcfadden, again, another fine game. phil: this is close. jim: is the ball coming out

yet? they are going to challenge it. it may in fact if they do not win the challenge they will be out of time-outs. phil: good point. i thought that last week jim harbaugh on a drive where he had no chance of winning the challenge threw a challenge out there when the giants were driving. he is down. looks like he still has control. jim: i see it starting to just a little bit slip out of the hands. down. i think we will find out that he is down. do you agree? i know you are still squinting and looking. jim: well, it looks like he is down. doesn't it? he does not have a lot of control over it. but the knee is down. it is on the way.

it is on the way out. phil: jim harbaugh challenged because the offense says if he loses you have about a four-minute time-out. once again, look at it. the left knee of matthews forte is down. jim: is that ball coming out at all at that point? phil: there is no doubt what when his knee hits the ball the front of the football is not in the fingertips of forte. does he have the tip of the football? jim: the ball is moving. it is so close. it is fractions.

again, you have to have indisputeable evidence. this is really san diego's pretty much their last chance. is there enough there to overturn it? >> after review, the ruling on the field is confirmed. the runner is down by contact. his knee is on the ground with possession of the ball. san diego is charged their third and final team time-out and has no more challenges for the game. jim: this is where you wish you had gone ahead and challenged it in the first place. phil: still, a good challenge by norv turner. i am sure he was finally told upstairs why not. challenge it. it was definitely worth the extra time-out to take that chance.

jim: only three snaps in this quarterback for the chargers. an interception that was gifted right back. lovie smith in the break had a bit of a victory smile as forte is plugged at the line for no gain. san diego will go home and we will see tebow in denver next week. denver is now 5-5 and a game up on the chargers. phil: how about that. jacksonville, buffalo. you know you look at the schedules, i don't know what to make of him anymore. are they tough? yeah. there are tough games in there. everybody is thinking chicago bears, they are hot. san diego chargers. look what they have gone through with injuries and everything else. they came through there and this game was in doubt almost

all day long. jim: third and 10. down to one on the down clock and they are stopped at the 45. so, remember one interesting thing here, clutts will be snapping this back. they have not had to have him in a punting situation this half. he is emergency filling in. two-minute warning. it will be a big moment here for clutts coming up, the snap on the punt. a seven and a half minute drive is about to come to an end. what, sally?!?! [ girl's voice ] hey samantha. [ giggles ] how could you. i got a phone call... todd...

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and the fuel efficiency of a prius. the all-new prius v from toyota. more prius. more possibilities. ♪ baby, come along with me jim: we are back. tyler clutts about to long snap for a punt for the first time in his career. back to podlesh. it is perfect. it is a pass and it is incomplete. podlesh overthrows. i am stunned by that. this game is all but over at

1:56. now they will take over at the 44. phil: the wind has really kicked up. and i am stunned, too. that is a risk that you did not have to take. he gets close. it is almost a catch. boy, you talk about giving the chargers a chance with that decision. jim: up by 11. you figure that they will find a way to maybe pin them down inside the 10. instead they are near midfield. rivers in trouble and what is he doing here? it is intercepted. intercepted by graham. looked like he was just trying to throw it away but he did not throw it away with enough aggression there. phil: he was. i am convinced that he was trying to throw it away.

the coverage down the field, they are looking for a good play. he just throws it and hooks it. on the run. never clears his body to get it out of the way. it is a catch. it is an interception. wow. jim: norv, frosted and even phillip rivers telling us yesterday the roughest stretch he has ever been through in his career will now extend to five. only four plays in the quarter run by the chargers and two of them were interceptions. the last two throws by phillip rivers picked off. again, here is the lineup tonight on cbs. 60 minutes, new episodes of

amazing race and the good wife and "csi: miami." bears are on their way to five straight victories. phil: i will say this about san diego quickly. their run defense was awesome today. if their defensive front plays like that the rest of the year they have a chance. look at total yard this is quarter. chicago, they did a good job all day long, san diego, with their offense maneuvering around. the offensive line with three new starters. their veteran quarterback made the two big mistakes that really hurt. jim: chicago is now 7-3. san diego falls to 4-6. five straight wins on one side and five straight defeats on the other. the final score is chicago 31,

san diego 20. coming up next, 60 minutes followed by the amazing race and then the good wife followed by "csi: miami." so for phil sims and all of the crew this is jim nantz saying so long from chicago. you have been watching the nfl on cbs. now let's go to james brown in new york. james: all right jim. thank you very much. we will take you now to atlanta. atlanta on top 23-17. 2:41 left in regulation. on the give for jason snelling. a one-yard gain for atlanta, and tennessee has used its final time-out. the falcons will face a third and 7 now. let's check out the game

summary. tony gonzalez got the touchdown to get things started. turner added to it and then locker stepped in to replace the injured matt hasselbeck. he hooks up with nate washington to give tennessee its first touchdown. turner fumbles the ball, titans get it back and locker connects with washington to bring the titans to within six. 2:36 to play in the fourth quarter here at the georgia dome. dan: and the big if now is if the titan defense can stop the falcons here, locker will have to run the hurry-up offense, needing to get in the end zone for a touchdown with no time-outs. ian: four-receiver set. jacquizz rodgers is in. shotgun on a third and 7. huge third down here for atlanta. ryan over the middle. low throw is handled by douglas and he is right across the first down line. they'll move the chains and

atlanta gets to use more clock. dan: yeah, this could do it. this is first down for atlanta. ian: and tennessee has no time-outs remaining. they have the two-minute warning but that's it. atlanta has just clinched the win. matt ryan, 316 yards through the air and the clutch throw to douglas to seal it for the douglas to seal it for the falcons. ♪ [ male announcer ] there are over half a million apps and counting on the iphone. apps that can take you anywhere and do anything. you might say there's no limit to what this amazing device can do. so the question to ask is -- why would anyone want to limit the iphone? [ phone beeping ] we don't. truly unlimited data for your iphone, trouble hearing on the phone? only from sprint. visit sprintrelay.com. ♪

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ia the story here for the falcons will be getting the sour taste out of their mouths from last

week. moving on they have a 24-hour rule. win or lose. watch the film. move forward. >> don't let one loss distract you enough so that you lose the next game. they certainly did not do that today. >> and their body of work under mike smith shows that. 39 games where they have not suffered back-to-back losses. there is opportunity for atlanta to make up ground and a viable playoff team right now in the n.f.c. >> it will be interesting to see how houston does with matthews leinart now. they have a very potent offense. >> tennessee drops to 5-5. tampa bay on the schedule. buffalo really struggling. new orleans and indianapolis still to come.

the atlanta falcons bounce back. a 3-17 win at home overton ten. and the falcons had to hold on to get the w. the running game will still be a huge storyline for the titans, held to 40 yards on the ground, 1 carries for 12 yards for chris johnson. final score here at the georgia dome. dome. 23-17.

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captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> i intend to wirntion i intend to be part of the whole effort to crush the other team. >> for grover norquist, the other team is anyone who wants to raise taxes. >> okay, folks, we want to get going. >> reporter: the conservative activist is at the centre of the deficit negotiations because he's holding pledges from virtually every republican in congress promising never to vote for anything that makes tax goes up. >> these are people in north carolina who voted for a tax increase when they said they wouldn't. >> reporter: and if they break their word, they can expect a primary challenge in the next election. >> you got them by the short hairs. >> the voters do, yeah. i plaud them on the sidelines. gi very good, yes, yes.

>> christine lagarde is an accomplished lawyer, former finance minister of france, and now the first woman to run the international monetary fund. the decisions she makes move markets and she's a key player in the current battle to prevent economic disaster. >> it is a very serious situation, unprecedented in many ways. >> what's the worst-case scenario? >> stalled growth, high unemployment, potential social unrest as a result, and financial markets in disarray. not a pleasant-- not a pleasant picture. >> you are a role model and you know. >> i think it's my responsibility to know it. >> well, good evening, los angeles! >> taylor swift is a role mod told millions of fans who pack into arenas all over the world to hear the 21-year-old sing songs she writes herself. >> every little bit of-- ♪ ♪. >> her shows are extrav

gajza-- extravaganzas and we were allowed backstage to watch taylor run in and out of quick change rooms, getting ready to hit the stage. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesly same-store sale w i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley, those stories tonight on "60 minutes." u know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be, and, you know, you start thinking about what's really important here. my grandson calls me grandpa. my littlest one, my great grand, now she calls me poppa. i just fall apart at the seams behind that kind of stuff. that's -- that's what makes me.

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gives you the lowest plan premium in the country... so you can focus on what really matters. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. >> kroft: the joint congressional committee on deficit reduction has just three days to reach a deal eliminating at least $1.2 trillion from the nation's debt, using some

combination of cutting spending and raising taxes. the person at the heart of those negotiations, and some would say the person responsible for the deadlock, is neither a member of congress nor the holder of any public office. he is a lobbyist and a conservative activist named grover norquist, who, over the years, has gotten virtually every republican congressman and senator to sign an oath called "the pledge." it's a promise that they will never, under any circumstances, vote to raise taxes on anyone. and so far, grover norquist has held them to it, controlling 279 votes, including the speaker of the house, the senate minority leader, and all six republican members of the joint committee on deficit reduction. a lot people think you're the most powerful man in washington. >> grover norquist: the tax issue is the most powerful issue in american politics going back to the tea party. people say, "oh, grover norquist has power." no, grover norquist and americans for tax reform focus

on the tax issue. the tax issue is a powerful issue. >> kroft: grover norquist is trying to be modest. since creating americans for tax reform at ronald reagan's behest back in 1985, norquist has been responsible, more than anyone else, for rewriting the dogma of the republican party. >> norquist: the republicans won't raise your taxes. we haven't had a republican vote for an income tax increase since 1990. >> kroft: and this was your doing? >> norquist: i helped, yeah. >> kroft: it began with the simple idea of getting republicans all over the country to sign an oath called the "taxpayer protection pledge," promising their constituents that they would never, ever vote for anything that would make their taxes go up. >> norquist: this is speaker gingrich's tax pledge back in 1998... >> kroft: and once they sign the pledge, grover norquist never forgets. the more signatures he's collected, the more his influence has grown.

>> norquist: i think to win a republican primary... it is difficult to imagine somebody winning a primary without taking the pledge. >> kroft: the signatories not only include more than 270 members of congress, but all of the republican presidential candidates, with the lone exception of john huntsman. >> norquist: okay, folks, we want to get going. >> kroft: all that leverage has made norquist's wednesday breakfast meetings a must-attend event for republican operatives fortunate enough get an invitation. david keene, the president of the national rifle association, was there the day we attended, along with conservative columnist john fund. >> fund: this is the grand central station of the conservative movement. >> kroft: we were told it was the first time cameras have ever been allowed into the weekly off-the-record strategy session. >> our approach is going to be to just simply drill away every day. >> norquist: it's people from capitol hill, house and senate, think tanks, tea party groups, business groups-- everybody who wants the government to be smaller and everybody who wants the government to leave them alone. i intend to win. i intend to be part of the whole effort to crush the other team.

>> kroft: grover norquist has been called both the "dark wizard of the right's anti-tax cult" and "the single most effective conservative activist in the country." he is a libertarian ideologue who believes that washington is controlling our lives through the taxes it raises to fund big government. and he's said that he wants to shrink it to a size where it could be drowned in a bathtub. you want to drown it in the bathtub? >> norquist: no. we want it down to the size to where it would fit in a bathtub, and then it could worry about what we were up to. >> kroft: i mean, you did say that your ultimate ambition was to chop it in half, and then shrink it again to where we were at the turn of the century. you're talking about 1900, not 2000. >> norquist: well, the... i think... >> kroft: 8% of gdp. >> norquist: yeah. we functioned in this country with government at 8% of g.d.p. for a long time, and quite well. >> kroft: that was before social security. it was before medicare. it was before welfare assistance, unemployment assistance. is that the federal government you envision?

>> norquist: each of these government programs were set up supposedly, in name, to solve a problem. okay, do they solve the problem? could the problem be better solved through individual initiative? i mean, i think we've found, under welfare, that we are doing more harm than good. >> kroft: do you feel the government has any obligation to the poor or the elderly or the unemployed? >> norquist: yeah. it should stop stepping on them, kicking them, and making their lives more difficult. >> kroft: norquist claims he got the idea to brand the republican party as the party that would never raise your taxes when he was just 12 years old and volunteering for the nixon campaign. he says it came to him one day while he was riding home on the school bus. >> norquist: if the parties would brand themselves the way coke and pepsi and other products do, so that you knew what you were buying, it had quality control. "i vote for the republican. he or she will not raise my taxes. i'll buy one. i'll take that one home." >> kroft: so this is about marketing? >> norquist: yes, it's a part of that. yeah, very much so. >> kroft: but norquist says the success of any product requires

relentless monitoring and diligent quality control to protect the brand, whether it's coca-cola or the republican party. >> norquist: because let's say you take that coke bottle home, and you get home, and you're two-thirds of the way through the coke bottle. and you look down at what's left in your coke bottle is a rat head there. you wonder whether you'd buy coke ever again. you go on tv, and you show them the rat head in the coke bottle. you call your friends and tell them about it. and coke's in trouble. republicans who vote for a tax increase are rat heads in a coke bottle. they damage the brand for everyone else. >> kroft: grover norquist is not interested in compromise. he likes things ugly and takes no prisoners. those who refuse to sign the pledge or backslide are subjected to primary fights against well-funded opponents, backed by norquist. >> norquist: these are people in north carolina who voted for a tax increase when they said they wouldn't. and down here in blue are which ones were defeated in the next election. >> kroft: well, is there any set of circumstances in which you would condone a tax increase, or

release people from the pledge? >> norquist: the pledge is not to me, it's to the voters. so an elected official who says, "i think i want to break my pledge," he doesn't look at me and say that; he looks at his voters and says that. that's why some of them look at their voters, don't want to say that, and they go, "well, how about you? could you release me from my pledge?" no, no. i can't help you. >> kroft: but you... >> norquist: you didn't promise me anything. >> kroft: but you're the keeper of the pledge. >> norquist: we remind your voters that you took the pledge. >> kroft: you are the ones that are... >> norquist: that's true. >> kroft: ...going to retaliate if they break the pledge. >> norquist: oh, no, no, no. the voters will retaliate. we may inform the voters. but let's say the voters all want 19... >> kroft: inform the voters with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign or educational expenditures to point out the fact that they broke the pledge. >> norquist: if necessary. >> kroft: but you make it pretty clear. if someone breaks the pledge, you're going to do everything you can to get rid of them. >> norquist: to educate the voters that they raise taxes. and again, we educate people... >> kroft: to get rid of them. >> norquist: ...to encourage them to go into another line of work, like shoplifting or bank

robbing, where they have to do their own stealing. >> kroft: you've got them by the short hairs. >> norquist: the voters do, yeah. >> kroft: and they have to march in lockstep with grover norquist? >> norquist: with the taxpayers of their state. i applaud from the sidelines. i go, "very good, yes, yes." >> kroft: if nothing else, it is a brilliant, bare-knuckle political strategy with some of the characteristics of a protection racket. many republican congressmen fear retaliation from norquist if they even suggest that a tax increase for the wealthiest of americans should be up for discussion in the current deficit negotiations. and democrats, like senate majority leader harry reid, have been demonizing norquist on a daily basis. >> harry reid: they're giving speeches that we should compromise on our deficit, but never do they compromise on grover norquist. he is their leader. >> kroft: but he also has some critics among elder statesmen of republican the party, the most vocal being senator alan simpson. what do you think of grover norquist?

>> alan simpson: ( snorts ) >> kroft: simpson gleefully accepts that he is one of norquist's republican rat heads in the coke bottle. he got there by serving as co- chairman of the national commission on fiscal responsibility, which recommended that some tax increases would be necessary to solve the nation's debt problem. simpson has no use for norquist. >> simpson: he may well be the most powerful man in america today. so if that's what he wants, he's got it. you know, he's a megalomaniac, egomaniac, whatever you want to call him. if that's his goal, he's damn near there. he ought to run for president, because that will be his platform-- "no taxes, under any situation, even if your country goes to hell." >> kroft: simpson also wants to know where norquist and americans for tax reform, with its multimillion-dollar budget, gets its money. >> simpson: when you get this powerful, and he is, then it's, "where do you get your scratch, grover?" is it two people? is it ten million people? the american people demand to

know where you get your money, grover, babe. >> kroft: but under federal law, "grover, babe," as simpson calls him, and americans for tax reform-- a nonprofit organization-- aren't required to disclose the identity of its contributors. so the finances of a group that demands transparency in government are opaque. norquist says the money comes from direct mail and other grassroots fundraising efforts. but a significant portion appears to come from wealthy individuals, foundations, and corporate interests. in the interest of transparency, would you disclose your major donors? >> norquist: i... i would not... i don't know. haven't thought of it. it doesn't really matter, because what we do is what we do. i guess i would argue, thinking back on it, we've had times when people who are contributors to us were literally threatened by senators and congressmen. >> kroft: so you're protecting the corporate interests from

harassment and threats? >> norquist: well, protecting me and anyone who wants to participate in american politics. you don't want people threatened because they want to fight against higher taxes. >> kroft: over the years, some of his group's lobbying activities have stretched into areas that are not generally associated with preventing tax hikes. he has lobbied the state department on behalf of the controversial keystone pipeline, and has dipped into areas like communications law, raising suspicions that the "leave us alone coalition" includes a lot of wealthy and powerful interests. his reputation also took a hit a few years ago because of his close association with disgraced lobbyist jack abramoff. but none of the insinuations of impropriety have ever stuck. >> norquist: it didn't work, because at the end of the day, there wasn't a there there. >> simpson: he is a houdini. you can throw him in the bottom of the east river in chains, and he'd come out of there. >> kroft: but alan simpson predicts that norquist could soon become irrelevant. he thinks the country's

financial situation is so dire that tax increases will become inevitable, and that a lot of republicans who have signed the no-tax-increase pledge are already experiencing buyer's remorse. you think there are republicans who have signed it who regret it? >> simpson: i do. i know damn well they have. i've talked to them. they come up to us and say, "save us from ourselves. i got trapped by this guy." >> kroft: in fact, there are a few signs it's already beginning to happen, albeit on a small scale. 37 republican pledge signers have urged the select committee to consider all options in solving the debt crisis. and six republican congressmen, including steve latourette of ohio, have rescinded their pledges altogether. latourette, who signed his back in 1994, says his driver's license expires, the milk in his refrigerator expires; the only thing that never expires is the grover norquist pledge. >> latourette: my word has been good on this tax pledge for 18 years. to be bound by something based upon circumstances that existed 18 years ago, when the circumstances are different, i think that's a little naïve.

>> kroft: grover norquist says he's not losing any sleep over the defections. he's convinced that the republicans have no intention of raising taxes, and he still has signed markers from 279 members of congress promising that they will never let it happen. >> norquist: most of republicans i know are very pleased that we make it easy for them to credibly make that commitment. they're smiling when they're getting their picture taken with me and... and the pledge. not grumpy, smiling. >> kroft: do you believe that everybody who smiles at a press conference is actually happy? >> norquist: no, but most, many. there may be one or two that are... are grumpy. and if they wish to provide their names, we'll focus on their states in upcoming elections. >> kroft: i mean, you've got them coming and you've got them going if they're a republican. if they sign the pledge and break it they're toast, and if they don't sign the pledge, they're probably toast. >> norquist: but if they sign it and keep it, they win the primary. they win the general. they get to govern. and i've helped make all this possible.

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>> logan: with the world economy teetering on the edge, one woman has emerged at the center of the battle to prevent disaster. christine lagarde is an accomplished lawyer who became the first female finance minister of france, and is now the first woman to run the international monetary fund. she took over the i.m.f. in july after a sex scandal forced her predecessor, dominique strauss- kahn, to resign. at nearly six feet tall, with her striking silver hair, lagarde's physical presence is as formidable as her reputation. she'll need those attributes and then some to keep the overwhelming debts of countries like greece and italy from setting off a worldwide recession. we interviewed christine lagarde friday, at the end of another turbulent week for world markets.

>> lagarde: it is a very serious situation, unprecedented in many ways. >> logan: what's the worst case scenario? >> lagarde: stalled growth, high unemployment, potential social unrest as a result, and... and financial markets in... in disarray. >> logan: for many people around the world, for many americans, it feels like they've been here before. is this worse than 2008, the current crisis? >> lagarde: you know, it's a continuum of 2008. let's face it, it's the same process that is unfolding before our eyes. >> logan: with the potential to be worse? >> lagarde: i'm reasonably optimistic, and sometimes desperately optimistic. and... and i want to be desperately optimistic, and i want to believe that countries will understand that they can actually change the... the course of things. >> logan: and if you look at the u.s., what are you most worried about here? >> lagarde: political bickering. certainly, i would hope that, on a bipartisan basis, both democrats and republicans can come to terms in their super- committee, about the deficit objectives and the deficit

cutting measures, and the debt. and there is a degree of certainty that is so much needed for markets. >> logan: trying to save the world's economy has kept christine lagarde on the go from the moment she took over. when we caught up with her in washington in september, she was on her way to address the imf for the very first time. >> lagarde: it's not always a job where you make friends, because sometimes the truth is not that pleasant, when you go through debt ceilings, deficit cutting and all the rest. >> logan: and no second thoughts about taking this? >> lagarde: no. ( laughs ) no regret, ever. >> logan: inside the decidedly gloomy auditorium, lagarde delivered some of those unpleasant truths. >> lagarde: there are dark clouds over europe and there is huge uncertainty in the united states. >> logan: uncertainty fueled by

the turmoil in greece, whose debt crisis threatened to bring down the rest of europe. lagarde played a critical role in forging a late-night deal to keep greece from defaulting on its debt, at least for the moment. then, she turned to italy, whose economy and debt problem are even larger. at the g-20 summit earlier this month, she helped persuade the dysfunctional italian government to accept i.m.f. monitoring of its finances. do you think you could describe the i.m.f. as kind of financial fireman? >> lagarde: it's a fire brigade, sometimes, when there is a crisis. you know, we try to put out the fire, and we do so with rules and funds available that are always paid back. in other words, we say to a country, "we will lend you money. we will support you. we will help you get out of that crisis. but you have to fix your problems." >> logan: the i.m.f., with 187

member countries, is based in washington, d.c. it sits on a fund of $842 billion. but that's not nearly enough to meet the potential needs of all the countries in europe facing crippling debt. the u.s., the i.m.f.'s biggest contributor, is reluctant to put up any more money to bail out europe. but member countries like russia and china, that are flush with cash, have indicated they may be willing to help. >> lagarde: letting europe down is going to mean-- if it was to happen-- major consequences, and negative consequences, on many other economies, including the united states of america. 20% of u.s. exports go to europe. there is a very strong linkage between u.s. banks and european banks. there are plenty of european employees that are employed by u.s. companies, and there are plenty of u.s. employees that are employed by european companies.

>> logan: before christine lagarde's arrival in july, the i.m.f. had a long-held reputation as something of a "boys' club." the most obvious thing, when you look at these walls, is that it's all men up there as the past directors of the i.m.f. >> lagarde: quite right. yes. >> logan: in lots of the things that you've done, you've been the first woman. does it matter to you? is it important? >> lagarde: well, what matters to me is that i'm not the last one. >> logan: lagarde's success can be traced back to her life as a young girl in the port city of le havre, in normandy. she grew up in this house, the oldest of four and the only girl. her parents were academics, and home life was steeped in books and music, an idyllic childhood that changed dramatically when her father died after a long battle with a.l.s., lou gehrig's disease. you were young when he died. >> lagarde: yeah, i was 16. >> logan: so that must have been extremely difficult. >> lagarde: it was tough on all of us. my mother was young.

she continued being strict and very demanding. >> logan: what kind of influence do you think your mother had on you? >> lagarde: big one, big one, because she was courageous, because she was strong, because she was very determined. she didn't suffer fools gladly. she was a role model. >> logan: lagarde's ambition and drive were evident from the start. when she applied for her first job with a paris law firm, she was told her credentials were impeccable, but there was one thing she should know. >> lagarde: "don't expect partnership in this firm." so i said, "why?" and he said, "no, you'll never make partnership because you're a woman." and i looked at him and i said, "oh yeah? well, i'm gone. thank you very much." and i just fled. >> logan: you ended the interview? >> lagarde: oh yes, of course. i packed up and went. >> logan: her self-confidence wasn't misplaced.

lagarde quickly landed a job in the paris office of baker mckenzie, one of the largest law firms in the world. just 14 years later, she moved to chicago to become its first female chairman-- a french woman, at 43, running a major american law firm. then, while at the very top of her profession, her country came calling. taking a significant pay cut and wading into unfamiliar waters, she returned to paris to join the government, eventually becoming the first woman to serve as france's finance minister in 2007. for president nicolas sarkozy, lagarde's appeal was her american-ness-- her near-perfect english, great rolodex, and no-nonsense style. you got yourself in trouble sometimes speaking too plainly. ( laughter ) >> lagarde: yes, i did. it's become my brand, in a way, you know, speaking the truth even though it was not politically correct. >> logan: i want to ask you

about the speech you made on july 10, 2007. do you know what speech that is? >> lagarde: no, what would that be? >> logan: well, that is when you said that france is a country that thinks... >> lagarde: oh, yes. i know what it is. i know, i know, i know, i know, i know... >> logan: it was her first speech as finance minister, and she was trying to get her countrymen to work harder. but she dared question the value of a favorite french pastime, thinking. "france is a country that thinks too much," she declared to the national assembly. "we have in our libraries enough to talk about for centuries to come. enough thinking, already. let's roll up our sleeves." >> lagarde: i'm glad that i gave that speech. but it was ground-breaking and it was shocking for a lot of the french members of parliament, especially on the left, because it was not the sort of language they were used to. >> logan: you were trying to motivate people. >> lagarde: yeah.

i was naïve, you see. i was trying to communicate that on a very broad basis. and clearly, i was pushed back, brutally, in parliament. >> logan: people were horrified? >> lagarde: i was praised in the u.s., and heavily, brutally criticized in france. >> logan: when the 2008 financial crisis hit, lagarde was highly critical of her u.s. counterpart, treasury secretary hank paulson, for his decision to let investment bank lehman brothers go under. did you feel that you'd been left out of the loop, that you would have some kind of warning? >> lagarde: we had warnings. i remember telling hank, "we are debating what kind of swimming costume we will wear and the tsunami is coming." i remember him saying, "no, no, no, no. things are under control. it's okay. it's fine. it's fine. it's under control." >> logan: but it wasn't. >> lagarde: no, no. of course, it wasn't.

>> logan: three years later, lagarde told us not nearly enough has been done to prevent another crisis. >> lagarde: everybody at the time said, "oh, we need to regulate better. we cannot let financial actors-- banks, financial institutions, speculators-- just run loose without rules." and we've been relatively slow in... in, you know, putting the rules in place. >> logan: some people listening to you say that will be horrified. they'll be "that's the last thing we need is more regulation." what do you say to them? >> lagarde: regulation is necessary, particularly in a sector, like the banking sector, which exposes countries and people to a risk. >> logan: one thing that looks very familiar to americans when they look at the european crisis right now is that the banks are at the center of it. >> lagarde: mm-hmm. >> logan: the average american is mystified as to why the taxpayer always has to pay when

something goes wrong and the banks fail. but when times are good, the banks don't hesitate to reward their own with massive compensation. >> lagarde: it's offensive to taxpayers in general that, while there is taxpayers' money put into companies, be they bank or otherwise, those institutions continue to operate on their terms. that's not right. that has to be changed. >> logan: from her elegant corner office three blocks from the white house, lagarde is leading the imf through perhaps the most critical and unpredictable period in its 66- year history. she has been called one of the most powerful women in the world, and her advice and negotiating skills are in high demand. but it is her work she takes seriously, never herself. >> lagarde: when my father passed away, and then when, later on, i gave birth, those are sort of ground-breaking

experiences that put everything else into perspective. you know, when i sit in meetings, and things are very tense and people take things extremely seriously and they invest a lot of their ego, i sometimes think to myself, "come on, you know, there's life and there's death and there is love." and all of that ego business is nonsense compared to that. >> logan: in paris, we met up with lagarde on her way to the market, where she still enjoys doing her own grocery shopping. with longtime boyfriend, businessman xavier giocanti, at her side... ...lagarde's trademark charm was on full display, and she looked every bit the seasoned retail politician. walking with you in the market, people are talking about you as the next president of france. >> lagarde: oh, that's because it's in the air at the moment, because everybody is talking about the next presidential election.