* * *  Introduction Ladies and Gentlemen, Every year, the ECB organises a policy panel at the Annual Congress of the European Economic Association.1 The intention of these panels is to combine the results of research and the views of policy makers to advance our thinking on a topic of great policy relevance.
Large-scale asset purchases A second tool that the Bank outlined in 2009, but has never used, is large-scale asset purchases. I emphasize the term “large-scale” because a central bank engages in asset purchases in the normal course of business – that is how the central bank balance sheet grows along with the economy and enables the distribution of a growing stock of bank notes.