The ECB Needs to Know Its Place

``At the very least, independent, unaccountable central bankers ought to "stick to their knitting," as Willem Buiter, the chief economist of Citigroup, has argued. Yet the ECB lectures, bullies, and even dictates to governments on issues outside its remit, notably opposing debt restructuring and demanding fiscal consolidation and structural reforms. To get its way, it has even, in effect, threatened to illegally deprive the Greeks and the Irish -- and by extension, others, too -- of the right to use their own currency, the euro, as legal tender.''