Move over, Ben Bernanke. This is Mario Draghi's moment.
The European Central Bank president is overtaking the Federal Reserve chairman â€" at least for now â€" as the central banker with the most influence on the global economy and markets. Faced with a growing recession and a possible breakup of the 17-country euro alliance, Draghi has bigger problems than Bernanke, who's overseeing an economy in recovery.
As head of the ECB, which meets Thursday, Draghi also has more ammunition left than Bernanke does.
The Fed chief still wields considerable power to drive financial markets. That was clear last week, when stocks jumped after Bernanke signaled in a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyo., that the Fed will do more to help the still-weak U.S. economy.
Yet the focus of the global financial world has shifted to Draghi. Some economists expect the ECB to cut its benchmark interest rate Thursday. Many also hope Draghi spells out plans by the ECB to start buying bonds of troubled European governments to ease their borrowing costs and shore up the euro alliance.
"Draghi's role in averting an implosion of the eurozone puts him in the unfortunate position of being the central banker with the greatest influence on global financial stability in the short term," says Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University.
AP
FILE-In this Friday, April 11, 2008, file photo, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, left, and Mario Draghi arrive for a group photo with G7 finance ministers and central bank governors at the Treasury Department in Washington. Draghi, the European Central Bank president,is overtaking the Federal Reserve chairman as the central banker with the most influence on the global economy and markets. Faced with a growing recession and a possible breakup of the 17-country euro alliance, Draghi has bigger problems than Bernanke, who’s overseeing an economy in recovery. As head of the ECB, which meets Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, Draghi also has more ammunition left than Bernanke does. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Close Bernanke's task isn't as urgent, "since the U.S. economy is plodding along and does not face an imminent disaster scenario."
Stock prices have risen in recent weeks, in part because investors expect the Fed and the ECB to reduce lending costs in the United States and Europe. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index has risen more than 5 percent since July 25.
Greece, struggling with debts and its fifth year in recession, may have to stop using Europe's single currency if it doesn't impose the tough budget cuts being demanded as a condition for its bailout. Many fear that bigger indebted countries â€" like Spain and Italy â€" would be forced to follow Greece out of the eurozone.
The breakup of the alliance could be devastating. Borrowers in countries that left the eurozone would struggle to produce enough money in their weak local currencies to repay old debts denominated in much stronger euros. As debts soured, Europe's banking system would freeze up. Its economy would likely follow.
"The stakes in Europe are much higher," says Ethan Harris, co-head of global economic research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "Europe is already in a recession. Their banking system is in worse shape than ours. And their fiscal policy process is even more broken ... The survival of the euro is at stake."
Last month, Draghi vowed to do "whatever it takes" to hold the eurozone together and said that "believe me it will be enough." Markets rallied on the bold promise. Investors assumed the ECB would intervene in the bond market and buy up Italian and Spanish government debt. They hope its purchases would drive Italy's and Spain's borrowing costs down to sustainable levels.
Imminent action by the ECB is considered unlikely. Indebted countries like Spain would first have to apply for aid to the eurozone's bailout fund. Then they would have to agree to conditions spelling out how they'd shrink their deficits.
And key details have yet to be settled. They include how tough the conditions would be and whether any bond purchases would target a specific interest-rate ceiling.
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