When is a central bank not . . .

. . . a central bank?

When it's in the Euro Zone. One reason the Euro is toast:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/business/global/bank-chief-rejects-calls-to-rescue-euro-zone.html

I'm not actually convinced from reading the story that the bank president, let alone the reporter, know what the function of central banks historically has been. The story is set up in a way that completely demeans it and inherently criticizes it.

(Even Wikipedia gets the historical function of a central bank more or less right. See here for definitions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_bank )

I suspect that the reporter thinks that Ireland's problems were caused by profligate spending, and the Italy was running a huge budget deficit before its current troubles - both common beliefs, apparently, and both false. As the guy who taught my auto mechanics class used to say, ya gotta know the problem before ya can fix it.