by Recent tensions within the European Central Bank's Governing Council have underscored the need to manage disagreement better. The status quo, whereby the president presents a policy decision as a consensus, after which one or more Governing Council members may issue a dissenting statement, makes everyone look silly. AMSTERDAM – The European Central Bank is undergoing a changing of the guard: a new president, a new chief economist, and two new Executive Board members. And the ECB’s new leadership is facing a contentious year in 2020. Financial Markets’ Iran Delusion Wang Ying/Xinhua via Getty Images Trump’s Near Miss with
Topics:
Barry Eichengreen considers the following as important:
This could be interesting, too:
Scott Sumner writes Anti-ostrich
[email protected] (Cyril Morong) writes Another Semester Has Started
Menzie Chinn writes Aggregate Wisconsin Employment Stabilizes, High Contact Services Decline
Anna Gelpern writes Memo to the Federal Reserve on strengthening financial systems against future shocks
Recent tensions within the European Central Bank's Governing Council have underscored the need to manage disagreement better. The status quo, whereby the president presents a policy decision as a consensus, after which one or more Governing Council members may issue a dissenting statement, makes everyone look silly.
AMSTERDAM – The European Central Bank is undergoing a changing of the guard: a new president, a new chief economist, and two new Executive Board members. And the ECB’s new leadership is facing a contentious year in 2020.
For starters, former ECB President Mario Draghi’s last policy meeting was marked by disputes over quantitative easing and the president’s role in decision-making, underscoring disagreement within the Governing Council (comprising the Executive Board and national central bank governors) about monetary strategy. Should the ECB retain its point target for inflation but make that target symmetrical, in contrast to the present “below but close to 2%”? Or should it abandon all hope of coming close to 2% and settle for 1.5%?
Then...