The financial crisis was a wake-up call, and in 2011 the heavily indebted countries were hit by the sovereign debt crisis. Economic imbalances were large, and investors realised that a single currency does not automatically entail joint liability for sovereign debt. Yield spreads widened again. Retrospectively, we can see that the financial markets did not play the watchdog role, as they should have done.
Less than a year ago we organised, together with the Centre of Financial Studies at the University of Frankfurt, the first large, open conference of the ECB on “Monetary policy-making under uncertainty”. On that occasion, I had the opportunity to signal clearly our commitment to a continuous and active exchange of information between the ECB and the academic world.