For decades, monetary policy has been treated as a technical, not a political issue. The mandate of central banks has seemed clear: keep inflation low. The borders between monetary, financial and economic policy have been blurry even before the pandemic. Faced with the challenges of the climate crisis, slow growth, unemployment and inequality, does the financial and monetary system need a new constitutional purpose? Who, if anyone, should oversee central banks? In this session, the economists Adam Tooze and Daniela Gabor discuss what a progressive monetary policy of the future should look like. In the following reflection, Christian Odendahl and Philippa Sigl-Glöckner translate the conversation to the German context and ask what Germany’s role in developing a monetary policy of the future should be.