ECB should be more open and democratic under Christine Lagarde | Barry Eichengreen

Those who set the central bank's monetary policy should reveal how they cast their ballots

The European Central Bank is undergoing a changing of the guard: a new president, a new chief economist, and two new executive board members. And the ECB's new leadership is facing a contentious year in 2020.

For starters, former ECB president Mario Draghi's last policy meeting was marked by disputes over quantitative easing and the president's role in decision-making, underscoring disagreement within the governing council (comprising the executive board and national central bank governors) about monetary strategy. Should the ECB retain its point target for inflation but make that target symmetrical, in contrast to the present "below but close to 2%"? Or should it abandon all hope of coming close to 2% and settle for 1.5%?