Crisis manager steps up to replace Stark
JOERG Asmussen, Germany’s 45-year old deputy finance minster, has an impressive CV.
Since joining the ministry in 1996 he has risen through a variety of roles, working in international economic and monetary development, and on European policy and credit issues.
From 2003 to 2008, he led the directorate general for financial market policy, and since 2008 he has been secretary of state at the Federal Ministry of Finance.
Josef Janning, a German political scientist, has said that Asmussen will be “less orthodox [than Stark] and more of a political crisis manager.”
Heavily involved in Germany’s response to the financial crisis of 2008, Asmussen could prove an invaluable addition to the ECB amid the Eurozone turmoil.
Back in 2009, he wrote a paper for the Washington Quarterly journal, entitled “Mastering global financial crises”, in which he stressed the importance of putting public finances back on an even keel once a crisis is over.
And this July, he denied Europe lacked leadership, but did acknowledge Europe’s politicians were failing to keep pace with the markets.
This might be his chance to help speed things up.