Those Crucial Central Bankers
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on December 23rd, 2008 5:39 am by HL
Those Crucial Central Bankers
WASHINGTON — They’re technocrats, schooled in subjects that bore most people. They are appointed — not elected — to top government jobs, and what they do is not well understood. But they are enormously powerful, and in 2009, they may determine whether the global economy avoids calamity. “They” are central bankers: Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve; Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank (ECB); Masaaki Shirakawa of the Bank of Japan; and their counterparts in China, India, Brazil, Mexico and elsewhere. Not since the early 1980s, when high inflation plagued many advanced economies, or perhaps the 1930s has their role been so crucial. Global economic expansion is slowing to a standstill. Economists at Deutsche Bank forecast meager 0.2 percent growth in 2009 — the worst year since at least 1980. In 2007, world growth was almost 5 percent. Without stronger growth, the slump might feed on itself and fuel economic nationalism.
