Like many Germans, Otmar Issing is alarmed by the surge in inflation to 40-year highs in his country and worried by the “misguided” response of the European Central Bank. But, as one of the founding fathers of the euro, Issing’s complaints carry more weight than most of his countrymen.
The ECB’s first chief economist when it was created in 1998 said the central bank was suffering from a “misdiagnosis” of the factors behind the surge in prices, having “lived in a fantasy” that played down the danger of inflation spiralling out of control.