Dr. Dirk Ehnts:

I believe the Acting Chairman is right. We should imagine the monetary system as one run by a government to provide itself with the resources it needs to do its job. That is why we have modern monetary systems and why we charge our citizens with tax liabilities, so they offer goods, services and work to the government. In the end, the euro is a tax credit we use to get rid of our tax liabilities. If you want to redefine public debt, you could say it is the money a government has spent and has not yet received back in the form of taxes. The government cannot go bankrupt. We have clearly seen this in the last two years when the ECB steps in and buys up government bonds. Technically, the ECB buying government bonds is creating a green light at the national central banks for governments selling those bonds. As long as the ECB does this, there cannot be a repeat of the Greek situation when that country ran out of money in the early 2010s because the ECB did not get behind it.

The monetary system in a democracy, and we are democracies in the European Union, should support democracy. If a budget is drafted with a majority in a national parliament, then the money that needs to be spent should be made available by a national central bank. If there is further co-ordination, we can talk about it but it is unacceptable to have an unemployment rate of 7% or more for more or less 20 years in the eurozone. People want to work and we can easily create or find jobs for these people because they are productive.