Choice of new ECB chief must be about the bloc’s future not its past
It would be a pity if Germany were to miss out again as modern Europe owes much to it
Mario Draghi’s appearance alongside Janet Yellen and Haruhiko Kuroda this week at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, would make a great photo for the history books. It may well be the trio’s last Fed retreat together. The guessing game on Fed leadership has received plenty of attention, and in August I wrote that Kuroda deserved a second term atop of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) when his mandate ended in April. Less explored has been succession at the European Central Bank (ECB). For now Europe’s eyes are on Brexit negotiations (perennially, it would seem) and on Germany’s election in September. Some time after that race, attention will begin to turn to the selection of Draghi’s successor as the central bank’s president. Rightly so, given that the ECB and the 19 countries sharing the euro are such a vital part of the global economy. As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted in updated forecasts in July, the world expansion is on increasingly firmer ground thanks to the contribution from — among...
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