Spheres of influence

摘要

FRANKFURT is BLESSED with not one but two central banks. In the north loom the brutalist headquarters of the Bundesbank-a raw-concrete structure that is three times wider than it is tall. Ascend to its higher floors and you get a splendid view of the city's skyline to the south-including a gleaming glass tower completed in 2014- This is the European Central Bank (ecb), which in 1999 supplanted the Bundesbank as the monetary policymaker for Germany and much of Europe. Decisions made at the Bundesbank once sent tremors through the continent's financial markets. Now, like the central banks in other euro member states, it has one seat out of 25 on the ecb's governing council.