Although the Treaty did wish to preclude certain types of destructive action that some misguided central banks had fallen prey to historically, its drafters did not envisage that the euro area would have less of a capacity to resolve emergent problems of macroeconomic stability. The ECB had to act, but without trespassing on matters that are properly the domain of national governments.
These include the accumulation and active management of foreign reserves and a sound and well-matched financial system that buffers turmoil, instead of spreading it. In this regard, the past few months have provided a valuable opportunity to stress-test the current system. And, in this case, the flexibility of our monetary and financial system has proved to be adequate.