"The Bundesbank and Europe"

Smyser, W.R. (1993) "The Bundesbank and Europe". In: UNSPECIFIED, Washington, DC. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

[From the Introduction]. The Bundesbank is the dominant economic institution in Germany, often appearing to be maker of German economic policy more than the government or any other institution. It dominated the course of West German economic history, sometimes pleasing Chancellors and sometimes driving them to distraction. The Bundesbank also bids fair to becoming the dominant economic institution in united Europe, whether through its influence on international monetary policy from its headquarters in Frankfurt or through its influence in whatever European central bank may ultimately be established. The leaders of the bank insist that this has not been and is not now their intention, but that all they wish to do is to carry out their assigned mandate to preserve the value of the German Mark. But others regard them with a mixture of awe and fear that one reserves for those that combine power, authority, and intense conviction. This paper will describe the Bundesbank and its role in Germany. It will then examine the bank's attitudes and policies toward various proposals and plans for European unity, and especially for European monetary unification. After that, it will review the bank's reaction to the Maastricht agreement and to the simultaneous drive for German and European monetary union. It will conclude by offering some thoughts about the future.

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