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The euro's savior? Assessing the ECB's crisis management performance and potential for crisis resolution

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  • Jörg Bibow
Abstract
his study assesses the ECB's crisis management performance and potential for crisis resolution. The study investigates the institutional and functional constraints that delineate the ECB's scope for policy action under crisis conditions and how the ECB has actually used its leeway since 2007; or might do so in the future. The study finds that the ECB may well stand out positively when compared to other important euro or national authorities involved in managing the euro crisis but that in general the bank did "too little, too late" to prevent the euro area from slipping into recession and protracted stagnation, ending up in its current predicament. The study also finds that expectations regarding the ECB's latest policy initiatives may be excessively optimistic and that proposals featuring the ECB as the euro's savior through even more radical employment of its balance sheet are misplaced hopes. Ultimately the euro's travails can only be ended and the euro crisis resolved by shifting the emphasis towards fiscal policy, by partnering up the ECB with a "Euro Treasury" as a vehicle for the central funding of public investment through common euro treasury debt securities in particular.

Suggested Citation

  • Jörg Bibow, 2015. "The euro's savior? Assessing the ECB's crisis management performance and potential for crisis resolution," IMK Studies 42-2015, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:imk:studie:42-2015
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    Cited by:

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    2. Carlos J. Rodríguez Fuentes & David Padrón Marrero, 2019. "The ECB monetary strategy: A critical assessment," Revista de Economia Critica, Asociacion de Economia Critica, vol. 27, pages 16-31.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination

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