Given their novelty, scope, and potential interaction with other public policies, communicating the merits of these measures proved to be much more difficult than before the crisis. A debate evolved around the premise that central bank purchases of sovereign bonds ventured into the realm of fiscal policy. After all, in the few preceding years of the crisis public debt had surged to high levels.
Is the decision to purchase public securities one which can be seen as overstepping the limits of “instrument independence”? In particular, how could the ECB avoid being pressured by political forces into alleviating debt servicing costs through continued purchases of government bonds? Would such purchases not have to be conducted above and beyond what would be appropriate for monetary policy purposes?