STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 24 September 2012

[Roland99]

39. 'Super' Mario Draghi's Problem With Germany

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49146770?__source=mnd|news|&par=mnd

"Super" Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank has a super problem: the markets might love him, the bankers might love him, politicians from Athens to Dublin might love him, but the German people don't. He's been called anything from "bankers' buddy" to "counterfeiter of coins", and depicted by the tabloid press as a devil sporting horns and a trident, set against a distinctly angelic Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann.

So what? In his position, he should accept and maybe expect more than his fair share of criticism. Comes with the office. True. But if only if were that simple.

Germany's old central bank, the Bundesbank or often lovingly called "die Buba", might only be one of now 17 national central banks that make up the ECB. But it represents the biggest economy, and with that money base in the euro area it will never be just another national central bank. The Buba, with its clout and reputation, with its stubbornly defended and often flouted independence... this Buba was and is the blueprint for the ECB. And at least in Germany, it will rightly or wrongly always be set against and compared with the specter of the old Buba.

You see, the Germans have always had a very special (and often romantically clouded) relationship with their old currency, the deutschmark, and the guardians of that currency, the Buba. For the Germans, this dynamic duo symbolizes the country's post-war economic miracle. Both have long become legend. And legends are difficult to match, let alone outshine.