Against this backdrop, the public’s lack of trust and confidence has been magnified by, among other things, the Occupy Wall Street movement, payday loans, overdraft fees, raterigging settlements in London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) cases, executive compensation and bonuses that seem to bear no relationship to performance or risk, failures in the foreclosure process, and a drumbeat of civil litigation.
The unique status of the ECB as an institution “sui generis” is given up in the draft Constitution. This reclassification may open the door to assigning objectives other than price stability to the ECB. The mere possibility of the ECB being forced to abandon its crystal-clear stability orientation might be a risk.