Comments for What About the ECB's Reputation as a Competent Central Bank? at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.cepr.net Wed, 22 May 2013 07:28:11 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/what-about-the-ecbs-reputation-as-a-competent-central-bank/#comment-493 "Competent Central Bank" is truly an oxymoron in the age of Reaganism (supply side). In Greenspan's book, he reflects on the moment in 1998 that he and Bob Rubin realized that "the US could no longer exist as an oasis of prosperity in a sea of poverty" (paraphrase). That, I believe, was the seminal moment in which rationality gave way to Milty Friedman goof ball economics. The coordination of monetary stimulation, combined with Randian deregulation, across the globe, began in earnest resulting in the debt laden, systemically risky world economy we now have. Europe has been mercantilist for ten centuries. Locked in deminimus internal consumption and high unemployment for several decades, the slow growth European Union gladly grabbed at the chance to merc to the US consumer market. Mercantilist Europe has no "politics" that would allow them to yield their balance sheet to save Greece. They will look to the US to bail out their fallen heroes. - zinc Fri, 07 May 2010 12:57:14 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/what-about-the-ecbs-reputation-as-a-competent-central-bank/#comment-488 "If the ECB fails to act to stem this crisis, when it obviously has the power, its reputation and Europe's economy will suffer serious consequences." Oh come on. The ECB's reputation is already totally discredited and Europe's economy is already in a deflationary depression. The time for 'stern' action was 14 months ago. - Moruobai Fri, 07 May 2010 05:58:27 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/what-about-the-ecbs-reputation-as-a-competent-central-bank/#comment-486 not to mention the utterly absurd concept of bank credibility in the Great Recession environ- time and again, the big banks, through the voice of their leaders (greenspan, bernanke, blankfein, lehmann, et al), have denied accountability, corruption, and fraud- at this point lucifer appointing some guy named antichrist to head the world bank would be about as credible - frankenduf Fri, 07 May 2010 04:17:01 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/what-about-the-ecbs-reputation-as-a-competent-central-bank/#comment-484 It is also not correct on the premise. The ECB is discounting greek bonds from banks, and has even suspended the rating criteria for greek debt. This is pretty much the same as monetizing the debt. On the other side, the repsective volume compared to the eurozone economy or just its output gap makes inflation concerns a bit overblown. And yes, I think the ECB knows this. - RW Fri, 07 May 2010 03:24:22 +0100