Former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi will go down as one of the greatest “monetary fools” in history after negative interest rates failed to prop up Europe’s economy, according to the former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

“I do think that Mr. Draghi, who I happen to have a personal admiration for – I like him, I know him, I spent a lot of time with him when I was at the central bank – probably will go down as one of the great monetary fools in history,” Richard Fisher, now a senior advisor for Barclays PLC, told BNN Bloomberg’s Amanda Lang on Wednesday.

Fisher added that Draghi’s negative interest rate regime didn’t lift up Europe’s economy, left Germany in a recession, and “decimated” the banking system.

Draghi ended his term at the ECB last month after eight years in the role. Former International Monetary head Christine Lagarde stepped into the position Nov.1.  

During his tenure, Draghi introduced negative rates in 2014 and pledged  to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro during a debt meltdown in 2012. But he failed to meet his inflation goal of just under two per cent with the ECB reporting its harmonized consumer price index at 0.8 per cent in September, the most recent month data available.

“He knows how to talk to markets, he’s a brilliant man,” Fisher said.  “Wait and see, but I think negative interest rates will be proven to be a very bad experiment.”