Jean-Claude Trichet

Jean -Claude Trichet ( born December 20, 1942 in Lyon ) is a French financial expert, who was from November 2003 to October 2011 President of the European Central Bank ( ECB).

Life

Jean -Claude Trichet was born on 20 December 1942 in Lyon, the eldest of three children, one was from Brittany university lecturers. The father died when Jean -Claude was just 16 years old. He awakened and encouraged his interest in science and mathematics, but also his love of literature and poetry, the mother of his strong sense of justice.

Trichet attended the Lycée Fénelon and the Lycée Condorcet in Paris. After he graduated from the École Baccalauréat des Mines de Nancy, a mining academy in Lorraine, where he graduated in 1964 with a degree in Mining Engineering ( Diplôme Ingénieur Civil des Mines ). Subsequently, he obtained in 1966 at the University of Paris, a Master's degree in Economics ( Maîtrise en sciences économiques ) and at the Institut d' études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris) a degree in political science. After initially working as an engineer in the private sector, he attended from 1969 to 1971, the high school elite École nationale d'administration (ENA ) ( at that time still in Paris), which traditionally formed the elite of the French administration officials.

1978 became the financial expert as consultant to the former Economy and Finance René Monory. But this only for a short time, because in the same year he became an adviser to the then President of the French Republic, Valéry Giscard d' Estaing in the fields of industry, energy and research policy. As Giscard d'Estaing in the presidential election of 1981, losing to François Mitterrand, Trichet went back to the Treasury. By the Treasury, he took a wide range of tasks (head of development aid offices, Deputy Director of the Department of Bilateral Affairs, Head of International Affairs, Chairman of the Paris Club - rescheduling and debt relief of insolvent states ) before him in 1987 to head the Treasury ( Directeur du Trésor ) appointed. He held this post under changing - even socialist - prime ministers until 1993, when he was (Governor ) of the French Central Bank ( Banque de France) appointed by the then Prime Minister Édouard Balladur to the boss. In this position, he decided lowered the inflation rate in France, forced privatization and was instrumental in the preparation of the introduction of the euro in the wake of the European Economic and Monetary Union.

In autumn 1997, the French Jean -Claude Trichet suggested as a future president of the ( at that time) not yet established the European Central Bank ( ECB). To the cast of the prestigious Office, then relaxing a competition with the Dutch president of the European Monetary Institute (EMI) (the predecessor of the ECB) Wim Duisenberg, who was favored by the vast majority of EU countries. In May 1998, the EU Heads of State and Government agreed on a compromise: Duisenberg was nominated as the first President of the ECB, but under the condition that do not fully exploit the regular eight -year term to the function prematurely - in 2003 - to cede to Trichet.

During his time in the French Treasury, Trichet was also responsible for state-owned enterprises, including the (now privatized ) bank Crédit Lyonnais France, because of its failed expansion shops, in 1992 gave the largest banking scandal in postwar history. As of 2000, the authorities against Trichet determined on suspicion that he had billions tricks of the former Bank lace veils aware. January / February 2003, it was opened against Trichet and other defendants before a Paris criminal court process. On 18 June 2003, the judge Trichet announced acquittal.

On November 1, 2003 Jean -Claude Trichet went to the office of President of the European Central Bank ( ECB). Trichet could occur in the sequence as the guarantor of the independence of the European Central Bank; so in 2004, when he resisted the pressure from the German and the French government to reduce interest rates, and in December 2005, when he rose against the will of ten governments in the euro zone, the base rate.

In the financial crisis from 2007 Trichet presented in consultation with the U.S. Federal Reserve banks U.S. dollars available and took it to euro-denominated securities as collateral in order to ease the situation on the money market. The ECB took over as foreign exchange risks of private banks. There also were several interest rate cuts, which brought interest rates to one in decades attained low level.

Trichet was responsible in the current Euro debt crisis also the purchase of government bonds of highly indebted euro countries by the European Central Bank ( ECB). Article 123 of the TFEU actually prohibits the financing member -state budgets by the ECB and thus direct central bank lending as well as the direct purchase of debt. The ECB had not taken Spanish, Portuguese and Greek government bonds by the ECB directly from the issuer, but also - indirectly - bought on the secondary market, which is considered by commentators as a circumvention of the funding ban. By the end of May 2010, the ECB had bought government bonds from Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece about 40 billion euros. The majority, around 25 billion euros, was it spent on Greek bonds. By March 2011, the European Central Bank has bought for 77 billion euros of bonds crisis countries. Because the ECB wanted to be relieved of this support obligation, Trichet urged in connection with the special EU summit on March 12, 2011 that the EFSF rescue fund and from 2013 planned permanent crisis mechanism ESM (European Stability Mechanism ) can also buy bonds from the secondary market in the future, but could not prevail. In June 2011, Trichet suggested in the discussion of the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area before the formation of a European Treasury.

Trichet's eight-year term ended on October 31, 2011 in the middle of the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area. His successor as President of the European Central Bank is Mario Draghi.

Jean -Claude Trichet sits on the board of the G30. Since April 2012, he is Chairman of the Board of the Brussels think tank Bruegel .. In addition, he is European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission.

Private

1965 married Jean -Claude Trichet, the diplomat and translator Aline Rybalka whose parents had immigrated from Ukraine to France. The couple had two children - Pierre- Alexis ( Marketing Director at the telecommunications company Orange ) and Jean -Nicolas, musician and producer of electronic music. Trichet lives with his family in Paris.

Awards

  • Federal Cross of Merit ( Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany )
  • Commandeur de l' Ordre national de la Légion d' honneur ( Commander of the French Legion of Honour )
  • Officier de l' Ordre National du Mérite
  • European Banker of the Year 2007
  • Order of Orange - Nassau ( Grand Cross ) 2011
  • Charlemagne Prize 2011
  • 2011: Grand Gold Medal with Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria
  • 2011: Hessian Merit

Prices

  • " Policy Maker of the Year", The International Economy magazine (1991 )
  • " Zerilli Marimo ' of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (1999)
  • " Pico della Mirandola " (2002)
  • Prix ​​franco- allemand de la Culture / German - French Cultural Award (2006)
  • " Policy Maker of the Year", The International Economy magazine (2007)
  • Ludwig- Erhard- Coin Gold (2007)
  • "Person of the Year", Financial Times (2007)
  • "European Banker of the Year 2007", the Association of Journalists "The Group of 20 1 " (2008)
  • " Central Banker of the Year ", The Banker (2008)
  • "Central Bank Governor of the Year" Euro Money ( 2008)
  • Honorary doctorates from several universities
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