Central bankers meet in Jackson Hole

Leading central bankers and economists from around the world are convening this week at their AGM at Jackson Hole in the US. Many of them are unsure whether to stick to the path of low interest rates and multi-billion programmes to buy up government bonds. Commentators have their own demands to make to the monetary policy makers.

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Wiener Zeitung (AT) /

The days of dollar domination are over

The central bankers should replace the dollar with the euro as the new global currency, writes the Wiener Zeitung:

“Trump is promoting an outsider role for the USA. The dollar as global currency rides on the back of the US leadership function. Perhaps those days really are over now - Russia, China and Japan will certainly have nothing against that. If this is the case, Europe has its work cut out for it. All most important raw materials are listed in dollars. At an exchange rate of 1.18 dollars to the euro, that's a good thing for raw material importers but a few months back, at 1.04 dollars things looked very different. If the arguments of the analysts are right, then the EU should seize this opportunity: euro listings of the key raw materials would stabilise European industry.”

Die Presse (AT) /

Monetary policy makers must save society

The central bankers' meeting will deal with more than just monetary policy, Die Presse explains:

“Our economic system is off kilter and out of balance. That not only hinders growth, productivity and widespread prosperity, it also leads to alarming political developments. The increasingly widespread feeling of being left behind ultimately brought Donald Trump into the White House, fuelled Britain's Brexit disaster and has put left-wing and right-wing populists in influential political positions across Europe. If it proves impossible to right these imbalances (which are further exacerbated by loose monetary policy), society will be torn asunder.”