Without popular support, unpopular actions to restrain growth or lift lending rates will become difficult to impose. That is an old fact of life for other autonomous central banks. But Europe's monetary gnomes will need to build from scratch that vital if intangible relationship in a way that no central bank ever has done before. Communicating the intricacies of money supply to noneconomists has never been easy. Such public relations will become even trickier given 11 nations with economic cultures that vary widely.
Central bankers are infamous for their esoteric utterances and auras of secrecy.
The stakes are high. Failure to make the bank credible to the public and financial markets could lead to an early erosion of public confidence. A backlash could put pressure on politicians to search for easy money and cheap credit as the quickest answer to Europe's chronic unemployment. Without public support, the bank would have no recourse to fend off the pressure, weakening its autonomy. Such an outcome commensurately would diminish the bank's mandate to control inflation.