Prof. Volker Wieland comments on the digital euro (Beyond the Obvious Podcast)
The ECB is pushing ahead full steam with the digital euro—as a strategic prestige project, justified on the grounds of sovereignty, efficiency, and the preservation of central bank money in the digital age. But what is this thing actually supposed to solve? Why do citizens need a “digital euro” when they can already make cashless payments using cards, SEPA Instant, or Wero?
Dr. Volker Wieland, Professor of Monetary Economics and Director of the Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability at Goethe University Frankfurt, one of Germany’s leading monetary theorists, sums it up in his statement to the Bundestag: Digital central bank money is “a solution in search of a problem.”