NOW THE Republic’s economic sovereignty has been squandered, the funsters at the European Central Bank (ECB) are kindly providing a way to pretend we still have control over our destiny.
On its website, the ECB is offering us the chance to act as if we set our own monetary policy by playing one of its two fine “educational games”.
In the first, Inflation Island, players from across Europe and beyond can amuse themselves by applying different levels of inflation, or shifting the cost of living, and seeing how this affects the population.
Given the ECB's stated target is to keep inflation low and stable, it's no surprise to see the expressions of the people inhabiting Inflation Islandchanging from smiles to frowns and the streetscape transforming from prosperous to desolate as inflation grows. Or, on the flipside, it declines so far as to become deflation.
On the building site, for example, the worker is calm and happy when inflation is low, while protests for higher wages appear when it rises. If only it was all so simple in real life.
A slightly more rounded economic challenge awaits in the ECB’s second game: €conomia.
In this game, Irish noses are rubbed in economic disarray even further as players are invited to “keep inflation low and stable by setting the key interest rate”.
Many economists would argue that an ability to set interest rates domestically would have addressed many of our problems during the boom, perhaps before they even developed. But unfortunately, this power was retained by the ECB alone and continues to be in its hands. Still, perhaps we should be thankful that the bank is at least allowing us to play at having control over our own destiny.
Generously, the ECB has made the games available in 22 languages. Alas, Irish isn’t one of them.
* Weblink: www.ecb.int
