Today
is a big day in the history of the Eurozone, for three reasons (always good to
have the big three).
First
an ideological Rubicon has been crossed by the European Central Bank (ECB) -
because in trying to cut interest rates and increase the supply of credit in a
stagnating Europe, it is engaging for the first time in a form of quantitative
easing.
For
the avoidance of confusion, its QE will be purchases of private sector bonds -
what are known as asset backed securities - rather than government bonds.
But
as the president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, said in his press
conference today, this bond-purchase initiative is a break with the ECB's
history, in the sense that
