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They haven't been celebrating in the euro-tower
since the birth of the single currency |
The European Central Bank is part of the Frankfurt landscape. The once-drab office tower which housed the Bank für Gemeinwirtschaft glistens like a new e5 coin.
Yet it is dwarfed by the futuristic towers of Hessische Landesbank, Commerzbank and DG Bank and the more dated monsters, those coupling giants Deutsche and Dresdner.
The giants nevertheless are watching the dwarf's every move. Because the ECB presides over a network of 11 central banks, including the once-mighty Bundesbank just three kilometres away, which manage the world's second most important currency, the euro.
The euro is only 15 months old so it has no proper history: the ECB makes it up, and decides on the basis of this Fiction whether the key short-term interest rate should go up, or down, or stay the same. Hundreds...
