The flight of the euro bumblebee

The eurozone is on the brink of recession, but in trying to stimulate it via inflation, the outgoing president of the ECB is chasing a ghost. Inflation, as we know it, may be a thing of the past

Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund with Mario Draghi, whom she is about to replace as president of the European Central Bank Getty

Mario Draghi once compared the euro to a bumblebee – a creature that shouldn’t fly, and yet does. The president of the European Central Bank made the remark in the famous speech, at the nadir of the Greek debt crisis in 2012, in which he uttered his most famous words: “Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough.”