European Central Bank is overstepping its remit

The ultra-loose interest policy of the European Central Bank (ECB) is having a nefarious effect on the savings of Flemish families. This emerged during the second Leergeld.EU seminar, an initiative by MEP Sander Loones, aiming to teach the citizen exactly what happens with his or her money. “The ECB has to provide price stability in the Eurozone, but with its paltry interest rates, it is pushing the small saver towards high-risk investments and threatening to create bubbles in the real estate sector,” Sander Loones says.

Top Dutch economist Lex Hoogduin and the Flemish economy expert Pascal Paepen agreed with Sander Loones’ vision at the Leergeld.EU seminar. They compared the way in which ECB director Mario Draghi is printing massive amounts of money to an compulsive monetary doping. Both speakers pointed out that we would now be quite a bit further down the road to recovery if the ECB policy would just avoid overstepping its remit, and respect economic logic instead.

Guaranteeing independence

“Getting the European Central Bank to come to terms with its mandate once again while at the same time guaranteeing its independence will be no easy task,” says Sander Loones. “However, it’s absolutely necessary if we want to restore health to our economy and the financial system.”

You can read a report from the Leergeld.EU’s first seminar here.