Mystery solved: The ECB ‘targets’ German/Austrian NGDP!

While the going was good, this appeared adequate for all, but when ‘push came to shove’ in 2008, ‘targeting’ German/Austrian NGDP did not provide a ‘safety net’ for the ‘others’, not even for those in the ‘Northern Kingdom’, here represented by Finland and the Netherlands.

Cyprus Heist

Since most EZ countries are fragile, if the surprise ‘heist’ (to use David Beckworth´s expression) on Cypriotes’ depositors goes through, ‘chaotic’ behavior may follow.

2 thoughts on “Mystery solved: The ECB ‘targets’ German/Austrian NGDP!

  1. I read a paper a couple of years back where authors tried to compare monetary policy of ECB with the individual national banks. It was a sort of counterfactual, and they used interest rates as the indicator. The result was that ECBs monetary policy for peripheral countries was equivalent of national banks setting short term interest rates that are negative. If I remember correct, i think it was even -6% for Portugal. The rates were right for Germany, Austria and Finland if I remember correctly.

    Greets

  2. Petar and Marcus—

    This is an important idea. The ECB is probably a bad idea.

    How does a “one size fits all” monetary policy work?

    Why not a global central bank?

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