The ECB’s Latest Big Mistake

One of the great mistakes among economists is to receive the measures of central banks as if they were the revealed truth. It is surprising and concerning that it is considered mandatory to defend each one of the actions of central banks. That, of course, in public. In private, many colleagues shake their heads in disbelief at the accumulation of bubbles and imbalances. And, as on so many occasions, the lack of constructive criticism leads to institution complacency and a chain of errors that all citizens later regret.

 
Propping Up the Status Quo

Monetary policy in Europe has gone from being a tool to help states make structural reforms, to an excuse not to carry them out.

The steady funding of deficits of countries that perpetuate structural imbalances has not helped strengthen growth, as the eurozone has seen constant GDP estimate cuts already before the covid-19 crisis, but it is whitewashing the extreme left populists that defend massive money printing and modern monetary theory (MMT), threatening the progress and growth of the eurozone. Populism is not fought by whitewashing it, and the medium and long-term impact on the euro area of this misguided policy is unquestionably negative.

Today, citizens are being told by numerous European extreme-left politicians that structural reforms and budgetary prudence are things that were implemented by evil politicians with malicious intent, and the message that there is unlimited money for anything, whenever and however is whitewashed by the central bank’s actions.

It is surprising to hear some serious economists at the European Central Bank or the Federal Reserve say that they do not understand how the idea that money can be printed eternally without risk is spread all over the political debate when it is central banks themselves who are providing that false sense of security. The central bank may disguise risk for a time but does not eliminate it.

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Πηγή: mises.org