Weekend Economists Wild, Wild, World Roundup February 17-19, 2012

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48. ECB 'played role' in Irish crisis

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0218/1224311977415.html

THE EUROPEAN Central Bank should recognise its own failings in the events behind Ireland’s financial crash, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said.

While saying prime responsibility for the crisis lay with Irish people and institutions, Ms Burton said she agreed with the argument by former taoiseach John Bruton that European bodies also played their part.

“If we are to overcome this crisis and avoid a new one, everybody has to be self-critical, including the ECB, for the reality is that the ECB monetary policy also played a role in causing the crisis, fuelling the credit bubble in Ireland and in other peripheral countries.”

Addressing the Brussels branch of the Institute of International and European Affairs, she said the “Merkozy” alliance between German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy had worsened the debt emergency at times.