@techreport{Heinsohn2003European,
abstract = {The Eurosystem is the fifth decentralized system in the history of central banks. It consists of
the European Central Bank (ECB) and twelve National Central Banks (NCBs) forming the
European Monetary Union (EMU). The stark decentrality of this System is so little known
that ubiquitous statements by high level Euro experts on its supposed similarity with other
decentralized systems, like the former Bundesbank System and the existing Federal Reserve
System, are met with no protest. A closer look on European documents and the balance sheet
of the ECB reveals, however, that the ECB \textendash{} far from being the monopoly supplier of central
bank money \textendash{} cannot set the refinancing conditions to credit institutions in EMU. The latter
are determined by the Council of Governors of the Eurosystem, while the main refinancing
operations are executed by the NCBs leaving to the ECB the role of vicarious agent. The ECB
can neither control all types of securities accepted for the NCBs' credit operations nor is it
able to act as lender of last resort. Yet, every possible manoeuvre to make the ECB look like a
central bank of the NCBs is relentlessly employed, most obviously in the design of the Euro
banknotes which are issued by the NCBs but carry only the imprint of the ECB, as well as by
the ECB's balance sheet as at 31 December 2002. The latter contains for the first time the
item \textquotedblleft{}banknotes in circulation\textquotedblright{} that are, however, issued by the NCBs and only allocated to
the ECB.},
address = {Bonn},
author = {Gunnar Heinsohn and Otto Steiger},
copyright = {http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen},
keywords = {E58; 330},
language = {eng},
number = {B 09-2003},
publisher = {ZEI},
title = {The European Central Bank and the eurosystem: An analysis of the missing central monetary institution in European Monetary Union},
type = {ZEI working paper},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10419/39508},
year = {2003}
}
