Posen warns Germany over eurozone break-up

Mr Posen added that it would be “a very ill-advised move on the part of anyone looking after Germany’s interests” to supervise a break-up on the eurozone. “Germany’s currency would shoot through the roof.

“Germany’s trade relations would be disrupted, and Germany’s banks would then be on the bailout list instead of poor people and other countries, forever,” Mr Posen was quoted as saying in the interview.

In May, Mr Posen revealed that he will not seek a second term at the central bank.

He will become the next President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based research institution which studies international economic policy.

His three-year term at the Bank expires on August 31.

Mr Posen is a leading advocate of the Bank’s programme of quantitative easing asset purcha- ses.

He has been a consultant on economic and foreign policy issues to several US government agencies, the European Commission, the UK Cabinet Office, and the IMF.

He is in his third two-year term as a member of the Panel of Economic Advisers to the US Congressional Budget Office.

He was previously a visiting scholar at central banks worldwide.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and of the Bellagio Group of international economic academics and offi- cials.

Dr Posen is the author or co-author of six books and numerous articles, including studies of inflation targeting, Japan’s Great Recession and recovery, the economic impact of asset price bubbles, and central bank independence.