European Central Bank’s new ideas team still hasn’t had an idea
Fed up with having to do the heavy lifting of the Eurozone recovery, the European Central Bank (ECB) has been upping the ante for governments to turn up to the party.
President Mario Draghi makes a song and dance of the need for "national governments" to implement "structural reforms" to haul the Eurozone out of miserly growth and miserable inflation at nearly every opportunity.
Draghi, dubbed Super Mario after he committed to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro in the midst of the debt crisis, is worried his extraordinary policies of negative interest rates and quantitative easing are not working because governments aren't pulling their weight.
So frustrated at the lack of progress is Draghi, the ECB has launched a new talking shop to suggest some ideas and look at what kinds of reforms might help the Eurozone break out of its funk, according to a Bloomberg report.
The ECB has pulled together wonks from each of the national central banks that make up its complex governance structure to form the "Task Force of Economic Reforms". The group will report to a subsidiary of the governing council, the body which takes monetary policy decisions, but, according to unnamed sources contacted by the news outlet, the ECB will refrain from telling governments directly what to do.
So, what kind of things will they be talking about? Higher levels of government investment in infrastructure? More state spending on education and training to increase productivity? Free trade deals? Lower taxes? Less stringent regulations to help swathes of the Eurozone's young unemployed find work and firms hire-and-fire a bit easier?
Read more: Draghi tells politicians they can do more
Possibly. Trouble is, the ECB's ideas body hasn't actually produced any ideas yet. In fact, Bloomberg reports the group "was set up in the spring and has yet to meet". A spokesperson for the ECB was unavailable for comment this morning.
Maybe it's not as easy as Draghi thinks to awaken the Eurozone from its slumber.