European Central Bank

Today we went to Frankfurt to visit the heavily-secured European Central Bank (ECB) and attend discussions regarding the founding and history of the bank, performance of the Euro Zone, and unique participation among member and non-member countries. We also attended two lectures discussing monetary and fiscal policy within Europe, the challenges therein, and what the future holds. Our visit today was the capstone to yesterday's lecture which introduced the significance of the Euro and the challenges one monetary system presents. During our in-class lecture we discussed mostly the history and challenges overcome, but also worked as teams to debate the varying challenges different types of companies would face in a Single European Market (SEM). For example, how would an EU intermediate supplier respond versus a non-EU supplier versus an American supplier? What unique challenges would they face? Would their strategy completely change? Would there be benefits? We also discussed how the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) have fared in growth versus the EU-15, and debated how long it would take these countries to catch up to the EU-15. There were several unique perspectives and justifications, ranging from mapping convergence points to arguing the CEEC would have to experience entrance of highly-skilled jobs in finance and IT to ever gain ground. The difficulty in answering the question of how long it would take for the CEEC to catch up to the EU-15 was amplified by the fact that the two groups had internal consistent growth that resulted in virtually parallel lines. The visit to the bank further solidified the challenges individual countries within the EU face to remain within the guidelines and standards of membership.