Mervyn King, Columnist

Where Does the ECB Go From Here?

Europe's central bank is an unavoidably political organization.

April 16, 2018 at 6:00 AM UTC

Mervyn King was governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013. He is the Alan Greenspan Professor of Economics at NYU Stern School of Business and professor of law at NYU School of Law, and author (with John Kay) of “Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making Beyond the Numbers.”

Jens Weidmann, be careful what you wish for.
Alex Kraus/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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I once congratulated Mario Draghi on his performance as president of the European Central Bank, telling him he had made only one mistake. “What’s that?” came the instant question. “Taking the job,” I replied.

My point was that by the time Draghi was appointed, the ECB could no longer hope to be a conventional central bank, if indeed it ever had been. Instead it had to serve as a highly political organization, compelled to stand in for the absent finance ministry of an incomplete political union. That’s an assignment no unelected central banker should relish.